A 34-year-old Eritrean single mother is set to be charged with child neglect after leaving her baby girl unattended for more than an hour in a locked car in Marsa, the police have told Times of Malta.

Charges will also be filed against the owner of the vehicle, a 27-year old Eritrean residing in Birkirkara, who was accompanying the woman.

However, the police have clarified that the man was not the baby’s father as initially stated.

The incident happened last Sunday shortly after 10am when an anonymous caller alerted the police to a baby locked inside a blue Volkswagen Polo.

The three-month-old was in a carrycot on the front passenger seat of the car parked a short distance away from the Sunday Market at Spencer Hill in Marsa.

Read more in Times of Malta and listen to an eyewitness account below.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.