Two boys, eight and 10, die in hot car in Cyprus 'after being left to sleep': Father and stepmother arrested

By SOPHIA STANFORD, NEWS REPORTER Published: 22:24, 28 June 2026 | Updated: 22:25, 28 June 2026 Two young boys have been found dead in a locked car in Cyprus after they were reportedly left to sleep inside the vehicle.  The children aged eight and 10 are believed to have belonged to the same family and are of Bulgarian origin. They were found in a car parked in the British base of Dhekelia, with police from the base attending the scene as well as an ambulance. But the boys were tragically confirmed dead once the authorities arrived. The children's father and stepmother are said to have been arrested on suspicion of negligence and a British bases spokesperson reportedly said officers were investigating the cause of death at a house in Xylophagou in the Famagusta district. It is believed that the boys were told to sleep in the car and suffocated from the heat but the cause of death will be revealed by an autopsy, according to the Cyprus Mail.  It is said the boys' skin was covered in burn marks and local media have also claimed that the car had been locked next to a field near a residential area when authorities arrived.  It's the latest tragedy to have struck Europe following a weeks-long devastating heatwave. Two young boys have been found dead in a locked car in Cyprus after they were reportedly left to sleep inside the vehicle As of Friday, four children had died in France following the unprecedented weather which has overwhelmed hospitals, including an 18-month-old baby who was discovered inside a car after child's parent allegedly forgot him in the vehicle on his way to work.  A three-year-old boy was also found dead in a car in the suburbs of Paris, where temperatures topped 40C on Wednesday - the three-year-old's parents found the boy unresponsive in the car outside their home, 45 minutes after sending the child to bed when he told them he was feeling tired. Two brothers, aged just four and two, were earlier found unresponsive by their mother, 33, on Monday afternoon in the town of Carpentras, southern France, in a car parked outside their grandmother's house. They suffered cardiac arrest as temperatures reached a sweltering 40C, and while services were called to the scene, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. A further 1,000 deaths of the elderly and ill were caused by the extreme heat, French officials confirmed today. 'Since June 24, approximately 1,000 additional deaths (unconsolidated figures) have been observed compared to the deaths recorded in previous months,' Public Health France said in a statement. Many of the extra fatalities are among those aged 65 and upwards, the agency said, after logging a 40 percent rise in the number of people dying at home. Both French and British health services reported a surge in emergency calls and visits as the merciless heat struck the elderly and the ill. 'We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities,' Paris police chief Patrice Faure said. 'The number of hospitalisations keeps increasing.' France saw a fourfold increase in emergency room visits for heat-related reasons and a surge of cardiac arrests, authorities said. Pictured: The property where two young children, aged two and four, were found dead in their mother's car during a heatwave Your browser does not support iframes. London Ambulance Service said the extreme heat on Wednesday had led to the highest number of life-threatening emergency calls in a day. The World Health Organisation said Sunday that over 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded in Europe since June 21 in connection with the record-breaking heatwave roasting much of the continent. 'Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling,' WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding that 'more than 1,300 excess deaths have been recorded since 21 June linked to high temperatures in Europe'. Scientists warned that the heatwave would have been virtually impossible 50 years ago, with human-driven climate change fuelling more intense and frequent extreme heat events. The heat has broken records in Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland and the Netherlands has issued its first-ever red alert due to high temperatures. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. 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