Two-year-old child dies after ‘climbing into’ hot car amid heat wave in Kansas

Child was found unresponsive and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead

Kansas authorities are conducting an investigation after a two-year-old child died on Sunday afternoon inside a hot car in Scranton.

Sheriff Chris Wells of Scranton, northern Osage County, said on Tuesday that the child had not been left in the car but had allegedly “got into” the vehicle.

The child’s name and identity have not yet been revealed.

Mr Wells said law enforcement officers and emergency responders were called about 3.40pm on Sunday to a location in Scranton, reported Topeka Capital-Journal.

The child was found unresponsive and was taken to Topeka’s Stormont Vail Health, where the child was pronounced deceased.

The child was inside the hot car when the area recorded a temperature of 90F (32.2C) and a heat index of 101 at Topeka, according to the National Weather Service. Topeka is about 23 miles north of Scranton.

The sheriff added that an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of the child’s death.

There have been several incidents of children dying after being inside hot cars.

Last month, an 11-year-old boy died in his mother’s hot car while she finished her shift at a hospital in Florida, reported Newsweek.

In June, a three-year-old boy from Columbus, Georgia, died of asphyxiation after being left in a hot car for three hours, according to the Muscogee County coroner.

A five-year-old died in the same month after being left in a car in Houston, Texas, with the incident being investigated by Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Nonprofit KidsandCars, 12 children have died across the US so far this year in car heat-related incidents.