A 16-month-old girl in Malaysia died after her father left her in a car for hours.

The incident took place at a public university in the east coast state of Terengganu on Wednesday.

Malaysian media reported that the father forgot to take his daughter to a daycare centre, situated within the university’s campus where he worked, in the morning.

It was nearly 4.30pm by the time he remembered and he rushed to the car, and found the child unconscious.

The unnamed father took the baby to the university’s healthcare centre but she was pronounced dead by the medical staff, said Kuala Terengganu district police chief Abdul Rahim Md Din.

“Police rushed to the scene as soon as we received the report and found that the baby had already died,” said Mr Rahim.

He said the police are investigating the case under the Child Act 2001. Any person found guilty of ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner that leads to physical and emotional injuries can be fined up to RM20,000 (S$5,700), or jailed up to 10 years, or both.

This is the second such incident in Malaysia in a month.

Earlier in October, in Kuala Lumpur, an eight-month-old girl died after she was left in a car by her doctor mother for 10 hours.

In Japan’s Tsuyama City, a two-year-old boy who was left in a car for at least nine hours in hot weather in September also died.

Police arrested the toddler’s grandmother, Setsuko Shibata, on suspicion of negligent manslaughter.