A three-year-old girl died in a car after being left alone by her mother, a teacher, at a car park of a secondary school in Subang Jaya, Selangor yesterday.

Nawal Iris Samsudin, who fell asleep in the back seat, was believed to have suffocated to death after being left in the car, with the engine off and all the windows shut, for five hours since about 11am.

Subang Jaya district police chief ACP Yahaya Ramli, told a media conference in Petaling Jaya today, that the girl's mother Nor Zatusy Hazwa Abdul Rahim found the lifeless body of her daughter when she returned to the car to go home at 5.30pm.

He said Nor Zatusy Hazwa, 32, was supposed to have sent Nawal Iris to a child care centre before going to school, but had forgotten about her daughter, who had fallen asleep in the back seat, and drove straight to school after sending her younger sibling to the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang.

"After completing her task, she went back to the car and was shocked to see her daughter in the car, her face already bluish, " he said, adding that the woman then rushed her daughter to a nearby clinic and a doctor there pronounced her dead.

Yahya said following the incident, Nawal Iris' body was sent to the Serdang Hospital for a post-mortem.

A post-mortem report confirmed that the girl died due to heat stroke, he said, adding that police would record a statement from Nor Zatusy Hazwa.

He said the case would be investigated under Section 33 of the Child Act 2001 for leaving the a child without reasonable supervision.

The offence carries a maximum fine of RM5,000 or two years' jail or both, if found guilty.

This is believed to be the second case involving a child who died in a car after being left alone by their teacher mother.

On June 22 last year, a four-year-old child of an English language teacher at SK Bandar Uda 2 in Tampoi, Johor, died in a car after being left in the vehicle for six hours.

- Bernama