Malaysian breaks car window to save child left unattended in locked vehicle for over 40 minutes

MALAYSIA: A concerned Malaysian man recently shared his distress on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account regarding an incident involving an unattended child left in a locked car for over 40 minutes.

The video was uploaded on Thursday (24 Aug) by X user ‘arifjat’ and has garnered 3.2 million views at the time of writing.

According to Arif, he saw the child crying inside the locked car.

“The engine was off, and only the front window was slightly open.

It’s crazy to leave a child in a car like this, especially in hot weather,” Arif said.

He also mentioned in a subsequent tweet that he was there for about 40 minutes but the child’s parents did not show up.

He then asked for help from the public.

“The latest update is that the child is safe.”

We broke the window and took the child to a nearby clinic.” he added.

In his latest tweet which was posted this morning (25 Aug), he said he immediately left the scene to continue working after the child was rescued.

“Since many were asking about the parents’ reaction, I didn’t get to meet the parents.”

He also mentioned the child was under the care of the clinic while waiting for his parents to arrive.

Outcry from Malaysian netizens highlights concerns of possible parental negligence

A surge of outrage among Malaysian netizens underscores the perceived negligence of the child’s parents.

Just like many other netizens who commented on the post, a netizen said she is curious about what actually happened that made the parents leave their child in the car unattended.

She mentioned previous similar cases where the parents forgot they brought their children along and accidentally left them inside the car.

“In some cases I’ve read about, some didn’t realize their child was in the backseat or they forgot they were actually bringing their child that day. So I want to know the outcome of this case too.”

Someone replied and mentioned that the front window was slightly open, so highly likely the parents must have been aware that their child was there.

“Poor child. His hair is wet (soaked in sweat).”

“Leaving an empty handbag in the car also makes me worried, let alone leaving a child alone. I wonder what the parents are urgently looking for.”

A netizen commented, “Good job, bro. If it were me, I would definitely break the window too. If I have to pay for the damages, I’m willing to compensate.”

Another netizen replied, “But it’s really strange if the child’s parents demand compensation. Safety comes first, you know, just watching that video makes it hard to breathe. Imagine being in a situation like that.”

A netizen also warns others not to leave small children in the car and shared a link to an article titled ‘Child left in a car can be threatened by heatstroke in just 15 minutes.’

Additional voices emphasized the importance of promptly alerting authorities in the face of such hazardous situations.

Several individuals took the initiative to tag or mention key figures and organizations in their comments, including Dr. Wan Azizah, the wife of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim; the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) and its minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri; and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), urging them to address the matter.