Two young children have died in separate incidents after their fathers accidentally locked them in the car during hot weather while they went to work.

The tragic deaths, which took place in France, will come as a warning to British parents as the recent mini-heatwave continues to sweep across the country.

Both deaths took place when it was just 25 degrees outside, but with temperatures reaching 45 degrees inside the locked vehicles.

Both fathers were middle-class men described by prosecutors as 'devoted and loving', who appear to have had just a tragic lapse in concentration.

The car park at the Areva plant, where a three-year-old girl was left unattended in her father 's vehicle under a scorching sun in Saint-Marcel

Jean-Louis Chapuis, the regional director of public security, said: 'The parents were very attached to their children and they are not a family which is in difficulty.

'There is no objective way of explaining this drama except to say that it was a huge moment of forgetfulness, a mental lapse.'

A three-year-old girl died from heatstroke and dehydration after her father left her locked in the car in his work car park in temperatures which reached 45 degrees inside the locked car.

Thierry Bas, deputy state prosecutor of the town answers media questions after the death of the three-year-old

State prosecutors said that the girl died within five hours of being left behind.

Even hours after she had died, her father did not notice her when he returned to his car at 4pm.

It was more than an hour later before he saw his dead daughter's body and rushed her to hospital where staff were unable to revive her.

'We have not been able to question the father. He is still in a very disturbed psychological state,' said the state prosecutor.

In a separate incident a week earlier, a two-year-old boy died in almost identical circumstances in the market town of Pont-de-Chéruy,   in the Rhone-Alpes region of south east France.

While the outside temperature was 25C, it was again thought to have reached 45C inside the vehicle - a Renault which did not have its windows open.

French state prosecutor Franck Rastoul said: 'The boy’s father, age 38 and a  resident of Pont-de-Chéruy, has indicated that he forgot his son was in the car  which was parked in the sun for several hours.'

A passer-by found Yannis Allarousse strapped into the baby seat in the car and alerted the police.

His father, who owns a chemist's shop, said he only remembered his son when he saw firemen trying to break into his car.

Meanwhile in the US a boy of four died on his mother's wedding day after she left him locked in her sweltering car while she went for a manicure.

Mirlande Jean-Baptiste's big day turned to tragedy when she came out of the beauty salon after three hours to find her son - who she thought was at a relative's house - slumped inside her parked vehicle.