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Spanish police rescue babies left in parked car during heatwave while parents went shopping

The Local Spain
The Local Spain - [email protected]
Spanish police rescue babies left in parked car during heatwave while parents went shopping
Photo: tiagoz/Depositphotos"

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times authorities issue warnings on the dangers of leaving children (or dogs) in parked cars in the sun, people still do it.

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In Menorca last week, during the worst of the heatwave, police were called to a supermarket car park to rescue two young children – a 13 month old and an infant of just one month old – from a locked car, parked in the sun.

The babies were spotted in the car at around 1pm last Wednesday, when temperatures soared at the start of a heatwave, by a Civil Guard patrolling on foot, according to a report in Menorca.info

He reportedly went into the supermarket and an urgent announcement was repeatedly made over the tannoy in a bid to locate the parents.

The parents failed to respond so an emergency call was made to the National Police and ambulance service.

Two officers called to the scene where the infants had been in the car for at least half an hour decided to break the front windows of the vehicle to get the babies out and check them for signs of dehydration or sunstroke.

Paramedics checked the babies and determined that they were suffering from no ill effects and at that moment the parents arrived back at the car with a trolley full of shopping.

They told officers that they had “just popped into the shop to buy a few things” and hadn’t wanted to wake the children who were both asleep in the back of the car.

A few days later, on Saturday in Manresa, Catalonia, police were called to a similar incident in a supermarket car  park, this time with a ten year old and eight month old baby locked in a car, with closed windows and no air conditioning.

A passerby alerted the Local Police after finding the children locked in the car parked in the sun outside a supermarket at 5.30pm.

Officers broke the window and the baby was taken to hospital by ambulance for a medical check.

In both cases parents are facing charges for the crime of abandonment.

READ ALSO: Take a siesta: The official dos and don'ts to survive a heatwave in Spain

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