An 18-month-old toddler has died after being 'forgotten' and left inside a nursery minibus for approximately seven hours in sweltering conditions in Almada, Portugal. The girl, identified only as Sofia, was discovered in a critical condition inside the vehicle on Avenida do Cristo Rei shortly before 4 p.m. on July 23. Paramedics attempted to revive her, but she was declared dead at the scene.
Timeline of the incident
According to the child's grandmother, Sofia was handed over to a worker at around 8 a.m. that morning and was supposed to be taken to her day care centre. However, the van was parked in front of a different facility than the one Sofia attended. The alarm was raised only when her mother went to pick her up in the afternoon and realized her daughter was not at the daycare.
The grandmother 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.'
Investigation underway
The nursery that owns the minibus has been named locally as Colegio Mestre Cuco. At the time the alarm was raised, temperatures in Almada were around 27°C. Portugal's Policia Judiciaria police force has been mobilized to investigate the incident. As of now, there have been no reports of any arrests.
