Three-year-old Guangdong girl suffocates in locked shuttle bus

Zhong Miaolin boarded the bus around 8.15am on Wednesday in Yingde city.  She was found dead inside the bus around 3.40pm by the driver -  almost eight hours after she had got on the bus.

Police said Zhong had apparently suffocated in the locked vehicle. The temperature on Wednesday at one point reached 35 Celsius degrees in the city.

The bus driver, surnamed Deng, said he thought all the children he had picked up had left the vehicle.  Another teacher travelling with the bus also failed to notice Zhong was still on the bus. The last chance to save the girl was missed when her teacher failed to call her parents to report she was absent, the report said.

The bus driver and the teacher travelling with him on the bus have been arrested. The kindergarten has been shut down.

The incident occurred only days after a three-year-old boy in Henan died last month after being locked in a Kintergarten shuttle bus for eight hours. The driver and three staff were also arrested.