Little boy, 3, who died in the back of a hot car ‘was left inside the vehicle all day’ – as his dad breaks down at the scene after desperately trying to save him
- The child, three, was found dead in a hot car in Sydney
- Police had to break a window to reach the three-year-old
- The child had been in the throughout the day, cops heard
A three-year-old boy who died in the back of Toyota Corolla may have been left in the car all day before his distraught father smashed a window to try and save him.
Police and paramedics rushed to Railway Parade at Glenfield, in Sydney’s south-west, at about 3pm on Thursday as temperatures soared to 34C.
Witnesses said they saw the father punch a hole in the back window of the car and try to retrieve his son after he found him unconscious.
He couldn’t be saved.
Police are investigating whether the father forgot he left his son in the car after dropping off the boy’s older brother at school in the morning.
He was taken to Campbelltown Police Station where he was being questioned by detectives.
‘Officers from Campbelltown City Police Area Command were told the child had been in the vehicle throughout the day,’ a NSW Police spokesperson said.
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The young child, three, was found in a car outside a grocery store in Glenfield in Sydney’s south-west
Relatives of the child were seen breaking down at the scene as the child was declared dead
The boy is understood to have been taken into a nearby bottle shop where members of the public tried to resuscitate him before police arrived.
Footage from the scene showed distraught people on the ground near the car.
The father was seen covering his face as he sobbed, with blood running down his right hand.
A worker at a nearby grocery store said the father was a regular customer.
Relatives of the child were spotted breaking down at the scene of the tragic death
NSW Police confirmed the death as it was revealed officers had to smash a window to reach the child
More than 5000 children are rescued from hot cars in Australia every year – the majority being babies and toddlers, according to child safety advocates Kidsafe.
‘Leaving children unattended in a car – even for a short period of time – can be fatal,’ reads information on Kidsafe’s website.
‘Children are particularly at risk because they can lose fluid quickly, become dehydrated and suffer from heatstroke.’
In December 2015, celebrity chef Matt Moran called media to a cooking demonstration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach where he’d prepared a piece of lamb using just the interior heat of a parked car.
‘This has been in there for a little over an hour and a half,’ said Mr Moran, slicing open the meat in a video of the demonstration, ‘that to me is overdone.’
Temperatures have been high in the Glenfield area recently and hit 34C in the suburb on Thursday
