Boy, 5, dies after father leaves him in hot car for eight hours

A five-year-old boy has died in Cyprus after being left for eight hours in a locked car by his father, a doctor who rushed to a medical emergency.

The 40-year-old doctor, an orthopedic surgeon who has not been named, was taking his son to nursery in the southern coastal town of Larnaca when he received an emergency call at around 8am on Tuesday.

He drove to a private clinic and left the boy in the car, police said.

It was only when his wife called him more than eight hours later, after she had gone to collect the child from his nursery, that the father realised what he had done.

He found his son unconscious in the back seat of the car, with an empty water bottle beside him. Colleagues from the clinic were unable to revive the boy.

A post mortem carried out on Wednesday indicated that the boy could have died from a heart attack.

The car in which he was found was towed away and impounded by the authorities. Temperatures in Cyprus have reached 117F (30C) this week.