Two children found abandoned on a road in Spain after mother threw them out of the car to teach them a lesson

A Local Police patrol in Elche (Alicante) took action last month when they spotted two children, six and eight, walking alone on the hard shoulder of a poorly lit road after their mother had thrown them out of her car to teach them a lesson.

The incident happened on 13 December when the officers, who were travelling from Arenales del Sol to El Altet, observed the two minors walking alone on the hard shoulder of the road, according to a statement from Elche city council.

The officers immediately turned round to check on the two children, when a vehicle stopped on the hard shoulder and a woman, the children's mother, got out. She explained that she had picked up the two children from school and, as they were misbehaving, she had stopped the car and told them to get out.

After that, the woman had driven off with the intention of returning a few minutes later to pay them a lesson. A little later, when she returned, the children were no longer where she had left them, so she started looking for them and shouting their names. At that moment, she left another child inside the car, in the care of a group of unknown youths and a woman who was passing by.

While the mother was looking for them, a woman driving another vehicle told her that the children were walking along the road, so the mother got into the car to look for them.

The officers checked that both children were well and took them and their mother to the car where the other child was. They established that from the point where the mother left the children to the place where they were found there was a distance of one kilometre, on a two-way road with poor lighting, a "dangerous" area for the children, who were walking alone on the hard shoulder.

The officers reported the incident to the prosecutor's office.