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.

Sources said the couple justified their decision to leave the baby alone, saying it was too windy and they had only planned to be away for about 10 minutes. However, it later transpired the baby had been left alone for nearly 90 minutes.

When contacted, consultant paediatrician Victor Grech highlighted the perils of leaving babies alone in cars and the possible health hazards they could be exposed to.

“Cold temperatures pose the biggest risk at this time of the year, especially if the car is parked in the shade, as there would be a risk of the baby getting hypothermia,” he said.

Onlookers gathered around the blue vehicle where the baby was locked inside, at Spencer Hill in Marsa on Sunday.

On the other hand, the opposite could happen in summer, as the baby would suffer severe sunburn, which in medical terms is known as hyperthermia.

“Apart from medical considerations, there would also be the risk of somebody smashing the side window and running away with the baby,” Prof. Grech said.

The anonymous caller, who on Sunday alerted the police to this case, yesterday contacted Times of Malta to express his dismay over the “sheer negligence” he had witnessed.

Although the baby escaped unscathed, he felt the incident could have had tragic consequences because she was found toying dangerously with a plastic bag, which poses the risk of suffocation. He recalled noticing the baby shortly after 10am when walking back to the car from the Sunday market. A man who had seen the couple park the car told him the vehicle had been in the same spot for almost an hour, since 9.15am.

The eyewitness said this scene had left him dumbfounded – he would have never imagined seeing a baby so young left completely alone in such circumstances.

He recounted how he promptly decided to raise the alarm and called the police on emergency line 112, at exactly 10.11am.

Within five minutes, members from the Rapid Intervention Unit were on the spot, trying to force open the car while a small crowd watched the situation unfold.

From the eyewitness account it emerged that some 20 minutes later the baby’s mother, together with a man, turned up, but much to everyone’s dismay they did not seem to be agitated at all.

They apologised for what happened but were severely reprimanded by the police officers on the scene.

The baby was ‘freed’ by the parents who unlocked the car at around 10.40am.

Following medical checks she was certified to be in good health.