A man in the US killed himself after realising he accidentally left his 18-month-old son to die in the backseat of a hot car, it is reported.
Police in Virginia said the father rushed back to his home just before midday on Tuesday after he discovered his boy's lifeless body inside the vehicle.
Shortly after he got home, police received a call that the man was suicidal, according to reports.
While en route to the address in Chesterfield County, police were said to have received a second call from one of the man's relatives.
They said the father had told them he had left the child in the vehicle for up to three hours and that the toddler might have died.
Upon their arrival at the house, cops discovered the car in the driveway with its back door still open and an empty children's car seat, reports the New York Post.
The child's body was found inside the house. Officers found the father dead in a wooded area to the rear of the property. The 37-year-old had apparently shot himself.
The identities of the father and child have not been made public.
Speaking to the media, Officer Chris Hensley said: “This is a horrible tragedy on so many levels and our hearts go out to the family and friends that are going to deal with this.
"But we would be remiss to not take an opportunity for people to realize how important it is to obviously check your vehicles.”
Police said their investigation remains open and they are in contact with the child's mother.
The boy is the seventh infant in the US to die after being left inside a hot car in 2022, according to noheatstroke.org.
The website, which was set up to track paediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths, says there were 23 such fatalities last year and there have been 914 since 1998.
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