A two-year-old boy dies after being left unattended in a car for hours in Valls.

Valles / BarcelonaA two-year-old boy has died inside a car parked in front of an industrial warehouse in Valls, in the Alt Camp district. The Generalitat Fire Brigade received a call between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. from a worker who had seen the child locked inside a company building on Calle de los Manyans, in the Valls industrial estate. When the Fire Brigade arrived, the father, who was eating a few meters away, had already removed the child from the vehicle and taken him to an air-conditioned space.

When the Emergency Medical Services (SEM) arrived, they attempted to revive the child, without success. The SEM also offered psychological support to the father and mother. According to police sources, the father was unable to make a statement on Tuesday because he was in shock. This Wednesday, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) confirmed that they are investigating him for homicide due to gross negligence, as he was in charge of the child at the time. This Wednesday, she is expected to testify. Initial hypotheses suggest that she forgot the child in the vehicle when she went to work, around 10 a.m. Therefore, the child would have been locked inside the car for about five hours. At midday, the temperature in Valls was around 36 degrees.

A worker from the same industrial estate who knows the family told the newspaper ARA that the child's father is the son of the owner of the company Fervalls, which rents out construction machinery. "He's a very responsible boy. I'm not telling anyone. I suppose it was a change of routine or something like that," she says. The vehicle was parked at the front of the industrial estate, within the company grounds, and a worker reported the incident. She called the emergency services, but also her father, who was eating at a restaurant a few meters away and rushed over.

At this point, the exact cause of the child's death is still unknown, and will be determined by an autopsy. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have opened an investigation and hope the father will be able to testify in the coming hours to clarify the facts. The Valls City Council has declared two days of official mourning for the child's death. The council has called for a minute of silence in memory of the child this Wednesday at 12 noon in Plaça del Blat.