A two-year-old child has died after being left alone in a hot car on a sweltering afternoon in Hallandale Beach, South Florida, where temperatures reached around 101F (38C). The toddler, who was in the care of a babysitter at the time, was taken to hospital but could not be saved. The death is the second hot-car fatality in Broward County in less than a week, prompting renewed warnings from safety experts that parked vehicles can become lethal within minutes.

The incident happened on Sunday. Police say they were alerted by hospital staff after the child arrived unconscious and not breathing, and investigators subsequently established that the toddler had been left inside a parked car at the babysitter's home. A police spokeswoman confirmed the babysitter had been responsible for the child and is believed to have driven them to hospital. Officers have not disclosed how long the child was in the vehicle, and the investigation is ongoing.