ALWAR: A two-year-old girl suffocated to death after her parents locked her inside a closed car and went off shopping for an hour. Another sibling and a cousin, who were also left in the car, had to be admitted to hospital in a critical state.

Police said Ishtaq Khan , resident of a nearby village, and his wife Unnas locked the kids, Mahima (2), Parwana (3) and Farhan, their 5-year-old nephew, in Ramgarh town on Friday evening. A police officer said the children soon started suffocating.

“When the couple didn’t return even after an hour, the panicked children started banging on the windows in desperation. Some passersby gathered there and saw the children. They tried to break open the window. However, Khan and his wife also reached by then. By that time Mahima had fainted,” said the officer.

Khan opened the car’s door and rushed the three to a hospital in Ramgarh where the doctors declared Mahima dead. “Parwana and Farhan were admitted to the ICU. However, due to their condition, they were referred to a hospital in Alwar where they are still serious,” said the officer.

Police said Khan told them he thought the kids would bother him if he took them along. “He didn’t want them to roam around in the market so he locked them in the car and went shopping with his wife,” said a police officer. Police didn’t say if they were charging the parents for the death and negligence.