Toddler dies after being rescued from hot car in France, says hospital

MARSEILLE, France - A toddler has died in hospital after being found in a hot car during a severe heatwave in the French city of Marseille, a health facility said June 26, in the latest such death nationwide this week.

Civil defence said they rushed the 18-month-old to paediatrics after finding the toddler in a state of hyperthermia in a vehicle on June 23 in the car park of the Timone hospital’s university campus.

It was not immediately clear when the child died, but local newspaper La Provence reported it was June 24.

It appeared a person working on campus had forgotten their toddler in the car, two sources following the case told AFP, asking to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to speak about it.

It is just the latest such death in France this week as the country battles blistering temperatures.

France on June 23 experienced its hottest day since measurements began in 1947, with a national average temperature of 29.8 deg C.

It broke that record the following day, with the average temperature reaching 30 deg C.

A three-year-old boy died on June 24 in a Paris suburb after slipping into a car and becoming trapped with the child lock, while his mother was napping with a younger sibling and his father was working in a shed in the garden.

On June 22, the bodies of two children, aged two and four, were found in their family’s car in a residential parking lot in the southern town of Carpentras.

Forecasters have warned that the heatwave that started last week could rival the 2003 episode of extremely hot weather that claimed nearly 15,000 lives nationwide. AFP