A TODDLER has died after being left inside a nursery minibus for hours amid searing temperatures in Portugal.
The 18-month-old girl is said to have been “forgotten” inside the vehicle in Almada on the southern bank of the Tagus River, opposite Lisbon.
The 18-month-old girl is said to have been “forgotten” inside the vehicle in Almada Credit: mtcurado
Almada sits on the southern bank of the Tagus River, opposite Lisbon Credit: Alamy
Paramedics and police were alerted just before 4pm yesterday afternoon as temperatures climbed to 27C.
The child was discovered in a “critical condition”.
Sign up for The Jattvibe newsletter
Thank you!
Desperate attempts to revive her by emergency medical responders proved unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police have launched a probe into the tragedy.
MIRACLE TOT
Baby declared dead comes back to life as parents prepared to say their goodbyes
‘PRECIOUS ANGEL’
Mother, 22, charged with murder after girl, 2, bound & suffocated on bed
The little girl has so far been identified only by her first name of Sofia.
Her nan told a local paper she was handed over to a carer at around 8am yesterday morning who was supposed to take her to day care.
But when the toddler’s mum went to pick her up from the nursery in the afternoon she wasn’t there.
Shortly after, the baby was discovered inside the van.
The vehicle was reportedly parked in an avenue called Avenida do Cristo Rei – in front of a different nursery to the one Sofia attended.
The child’s gran told Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manha: “We don’t know why my granddaughter was left in a van at this institution, which isn’t hers.
“The person who had the van killed my granddaughter.”
The creche the van belonged to has been named locally as Colegio Mestre Cuco.
There have been no reports of any arrests so far as cops continue their inquiries.
Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria police force have been mobilised to take charge of the investigation.
It comes after two children were found dead in their family’s car in France last month as Europe suffered a ferocious heatwave.
The children, a boy aged two and a girl aged four, suffered a cardiac arrest in the car which was parked in their grandmother’s garden in Vaucluse.
The siblings were found by firefighters who received a call at around 1.20pm, as temperatures neared 40C.
Prosecutors initially said the kids climbed into the car without their mother knowing.
But a police source told Le Parisien that the 33-year-old mum had “forgotten her children” while out shopping.
And in September 2023 a baby girl called Madalena died after being left in a car on a Portuguese university campus in 26 degree heat.
The 10-month-old child’s father is believed to have forgotten to drop her off at its creche before going to work and leaving her in the vehicle.
He reportedly called 999 after realising his tragic error and discovering the youngster unconscious inside the car.
