A driver has been widely criticised after leaving a baby inside a parked car in the height of the summer heatwave while they went shopping.

The customer at a Tesco superstore in Newton Abbot prompted outrage after footage of the child locked in the vehicle circulated on social media.

In the video, the child can be heard repeatedly screaming from inside the car, which has been parked in heat of up to 27C recorded in the area on Thursday.

Such conditions can cause the inside of a vehicle to become 10C hotter than the outside temperature in just 10 minutes.

“Someone has left their newborn baby in the car,” the cameraman says as he videos the scene. “It’s screaming its head off - outrageous that is.”

Eyewitnesses reported the child had been left in the car by its grandfather, who returned to remove the baby after staff at the supermarket made an announcement on the store speaker system.

A Tesco spokesman told Devon Live: “A customer told one of our colleagues that a young child had been left on their own in a parked car at our Newton Abbot store.

“We put out a call in store for the vehicle’s driver, and they returned to their car.”

Britain is in the midst of a scorching heatwave, with temperatures set to soar once again this week.

The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning after forecasts showed the mercury is likely to rise above 34.5C on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.