Week-old baby rescued from BMW

Firefighters called in an AA patrol man to help rescue a week-old baby after she was accidentally locked in her parents' car in freezing temperatures.

Faith Ryan was asleep in a BMW on Monday as her mother and father travelled to register her birth and collect her birth certificate.

But when they parked the car outside council offices in Sheep Street, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, Faith's mother accidentally locked the doors, leaving the car keys on the front seat.

Faith's father Chris called the fire brigade, but when the crew from Wellingborough arrived they decided it was too distressing for the baby, for them to smash a window.

Picked lock

They called in the AA.

Firefighter Martyn Perkins said: "The baby wasn't in any distress and if we had broken the window we would have perhaps got bits of glass on the baby".

AA patrolman Colin Freeman was on the scene in seven minutes and freed Faith in another seven minutes.

Mr Freeman, 37, picked the lock on the car as temperatures fell to minus 4C.

Embarrassed

Mr Freeman said: "You don't want the baby in there in these temperatures.

"Mum was panicking and Dad was a bit distressed".

"For a one-week-old baby that can't regulate its temperature it's pretty chilly," he added.

Mr Perkins said the parents were "very, very embarrassed" by the accident and did not want to talk about the incident.