Manama: A girl in an elementary school in Qatar had a close brush with death after she was left sleeping on a bus that was about to be locked for hours in a parking lot.

The girl was discovered by the driver after all the students left the bus and he took the vehicle to the parking lot.

Casting a last look, he discovered the young girl forgotten by the chaperone in the rear of the bus and promptly took her to the school building, Qatari daily Al Arab reported.

Her parents were called in to take her to ensure her well-being, the daily said.

However, the Supreme Education Council, regulator of all schools in the country, took a serious view of the incident, charged the school of negligence after the chaperone failed to do the required safety check protocol, and warned management that such a careless act affecting the security of students would not be pardoned in future.

The incident brought to mind the tragic death in May of a four-year-old Indian student in an Indian school in Doha after she was left alone in a locked bus for over four hours.
The girl apparently died of heat and asphyxiation in a bus parked by its driver who took the children to their school, but failed to make sure they all got off when they reached their destination.

The victim was identified as Sarah Gazdhar, a KG-1 student of DPS-MIS (Delhi Public School - Modern Indian School) located in the Rawda area in Doha.