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'Irresponsible': Man breaks into hot car with axe to save dog during heatwave

A man has been filmed shattering a car window with an axe after discovering a dog trapped inside during a record heatwave.

England has sweltered through six consecutive days of temperatures above 34 degrees for the first time since 1961.

Berkshire resident Samantha Heaver noticed a Yorkshire terrier in a parked car at Newbury Retail Park, in southeast England, on Monday as temperatures reached a high of 33.

A video uploaded to Facebook shows a man hacking away at the window with an axe.

“That’s done it. That’s enough,” he says as the window shatters.

A man shatters a car window with an axe to free a terrier.  The terrier is also pictured with police.
A man tries to free the pooch before officers attend to the dog. Source: Facebook/ Samantha Heaver

Ms Heaver zooms in on the back seat where the terrier sits.

“That poor little dog,” she says.

Photos included in the post show police removing the little dog from the car.

Ms Heaver called the owner of the dog a “d***head” and a “twat” but it’s not known how long the pooch was in the car for.

Other people on Facebook chimed in, also furious about the dog being left in a hot car.

“This hurts my heart so much to see people treat dogs like this,” one woman wrote.

Another woman called it “absolutely disgusting”.

“Thank God you were there to get the poor little thing out,” another woman wrote.

The RSPCA advises people who see dogs locked in parked cars to call Triple-0 immediately, warning it can take less than six minutes for an animal to suffer severe heat exhaustion in a car and die.

It’s not known if the dog owner was charged with an offence on this occasion but police did attend to the matter.

Thames Valley Police have been contacted for comment.

The UK Met Office expects the heatwave to last until Monday with the chance of thunderstorms and flash flooding.

Chief meteorologist Frank Saunders said thunderstorm warnings currently cover “much of England and Wales, with parts of southern England and South Wales seeing the greatest likelihood of impacts”.

“The storms will not affect all areas, but where they happen there will be frequent lightning, gusty winds and intense, heavy downpours with 30 to 40mm of rain possible in less than an hour and, in a few unlucky spots, a small chance of 60 mm falling in a short period,” Mr Saunders said.

“With the continuing hot weather, large swathes of the UK continue to be at risk from thunderstorms, and potentially the impacts from heavy rain, into the early part of next week.”

A terrier sits in a car with the window smashed.
People were relieved the dog's OK. Source: Facebook/ Samantha Heaver

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