Mother of baby who died in car probed for manslaughter

Rome, June 8 (IANS/AKI) The mother of a one-year-old girl who died after she was left for six hours in a hot car in central Italy is being investigated for manslaughter, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Tamara Rossi went into cardiac arrest and died strapped in her car seat in a parking lot on Wednesday in the town of Castelfranco di Sopra as the temperature outside the vehicle climbed to almost 30C.

Ilaria Naldini, a 38-year-old from nearby Terranuova Bracciolini, left the 18-month-old in her Lancia car outside the council offices where she worked.

The woman told police she only noticed her daughter was in the back of the vehicle from her rear view mirror as she reversed out of the car park in the afternoon while leaving work.

Witnesses said Naldini let out a harrowing scream and ran to a nearby bar with the unresponsive baby in her arms. Paramedics called to the scene used a defibrillator on the child but were unable to revive her.

Questioned by prosecutors on Thursday, Naldini said she drove straight to work in the morning with Tamara still inside the car, forgetting to drop her off at nursery.

Naldini's colleagues described her as a "conscientious worker and mother".

--IANS/AKI

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