KUALA LUMPUR: An eight-month-old baby girl died after allegedly being left inside a car for almost eight hours by her mother at the parking lot of the Canselor Tunku Muhriz Hospital in Cheras here yesterday.

Cheras Police chief ACP Zam Halim Jamaluddin said the mother, who is a doctor at the hospital, was reported to have brought the baby to be dropped off at a nursery on her way to work at 7.20 am.

He said after placing her child in the rear seat, the woman, however, drove straight to work.

"She only realised that her daughter was still in the car later in the afternoon when her husband called and asked why the baby was not sent to the nursery," he said in a statement here today.

Zam Halim said the baby girl, the youngest of two siblings, was pronounced dead at 5.53 pm by one of the hospital's medical officers.

Police will record statements from the mother after the funeral arrangement is completed.

The case is classified as sudden death but further investigation into child neglect will be carried out in accordance with Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001.

-- BERNAMA