A young dog was locked in a hot car without any windows open at a March retail park in today’s 30 degree heatwave, a shopper claims.

Nicole Fox said staff at the town’s B&M store made five announcements over their loud speaker asking the owner to attend to the distressed pup.

She said: “As soon as we got out of our car we could hear the poor dog yelping and soon realised it was in a white Nissan truck nearby. There were no widows open.

“The staff made five attempts to ask the owner to come forwards to the till. When she did eventually attend to the dog, she said she needed to leave it and finish her shopping.”

Nicole added: “I couldn’t believe what she’d said. B&M staff gave the dog some water and I’ve never seen a dog drink so much, so fast. Poor thing was clearly gasping.

“My guess is that it had been in the car for between 30 and 40 minutes.”

Nicole also explained that when she asked why the dog had been left in the car, the owner responded with a barrage of abuse.

The dog has been described as black and white with the appearance of a Great Dane. It is thought to be less than a year old.

The incident, which happened at around 3:30pm, has been reported to the RSPCA.