HARARE – Four children aged between three and four were found dead in a parked car in Harare’s Hopley Zone 1 on Thursday evening, police confirmed.
Police believe the children, who were last seen playing in the street, entered the vehicle unnoticed and accidentally locked themselves inside.
The bodies of the two boys and two girls, who were all neighbours, were taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital for a postmortem.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said police were still at the scene on Friday morning and would be issuing a statement.
A neighbour who spoke to ZimLive said the children were last seen at around 1PM playing in the street.
“Their parents noticed that it had all gone quiet not long after and started searching for them to no avail. It was not until around 7PM that one of our neighbours Simbarashe Makaza went to his vehicle, a Toyota Chase, to look for a container to buy oil for his generator that he found the children dead in a heap on the backseat,” the neighbour said.
Police believe the Toyota had been left unlocked, and once the children went into the vehicle one of them would have caused it to lock, preventing them from exiting the vehicle until they suffocated to their deaths as afternoon temperatures soared 29°.
