Dubai: 2 children locked inside car by father, rescued by police

The Dubai Police recently rescued two Asian children from a locked car after their father went shopping in a supermarket.

The children are aged two and four.

The police said on Wednesday that passers-by dialed 999 after they noticed the children waving to them from the locked car which had its engine switched off.

Rescue teams rushed to the location and forced the door open.

The father told the police he routinely leaves his children in the car as he goes shopping.

The police have responded to 95 distress calls involving children in the first five months of 2021. Of these, 36 were that of children being stuck in cars, according to Arabic daily Al Bayan. Some others were rescued from lifts.

Lt-Colonel Abdullah Bishwah, director of the Land Rescue Department, said rescue teams dealt with 182 reports about children being stuck, in 17 months.

He warned parents against leaving their children in vehicles during the summer.

Experts had earlier told Khaleej Times that the temperature in a locked vehicle, which has been under the direct rays of the sun for a long time, can soar up to 60 degrees Celsius.

Leaving or forgetting a child inside a vehicle in such extreme hot conditions exposes h/her to heatstroke and suffocation, and that can lead to his/her death in lesser than 10 minutes, experts warned.

• Dubai