IT was a mother's nightmare finding her toddler locked in a car in the blazing heat with the keys inside.

But that was the situation Yvonne Walsh found herself in when the doors of her car locked, trapping her son Lewis, aged two, inside.

Mrs Walsh had strapped her son in the car at the Market Place car park, shut the door, and went to put her pram and shopping in the boot.

But when she tried to get in the car, she found the doors were locked and she had accidentally left the keys inside.

Mrs Walsh, aged 35, of Greenhaven Close, Walkden, panicked and thought she might have to break a window of the Silver Volkswagen Golf to rescue her son.

She said: "I just didn't know what to do. Luckily my friend, who was just about to leave, had her keys, so I dangled them outside the window pointing at them and kept saying mummy's keys'.

"He is a bright boy, and eventually he picked up the keys. To open the car you have to press the button twice in a short time for the doors to open.

"He pressed the button once. I said again, again' and he managed to press it twice.

"I flung the doors open and picked him up, and he said I did it, I did it!' like his favourite TV programme, Dora the Explorer."

She added: "He thought it was a game, but I was so relieved. I had rung the police to see if they could help, but they just said to break a window.

"I also called my husband David, who was going to bring the spare keys to the car park, but in the end he didn't need to.

"I don't know how this happened. I am going to get the car checked to see if there is a fault, because I wouldn't expect it to lock automatically when my child is inside."

A spokesman for Volkswagen said it was not part of the security features to lock when there was someone inside.

She said: "If you press the keys and don't open the door within 30 seconds, the doors will automatically lock, which will protect against opening the car if you accidentally press the button when it is in a pocket or handbag.

"But once the door has been opened, that disconnects the mechanism, so when it is closed again it should not automatically lock.

"It is possible that there is a fault with the vehicle, as from time to time things do go wrong.

"Mrs Walsh should take the car to her local retailer to get it checked. No one else has reported this as a problem."