HALIFAX -- A woman has been charged after four children were left inside a vehicle on a hot summer day in New Glasgow, N.S., last week.

New Glasgow Regional Police responded to a distress call in the parking lot of a Walmart store around 2:50 p.m. on July 29.

Police say three girls and a boy, ranging in age from one to nine years old, had been left unattended in a vehicle with some windows down.

The four children sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to the Aberdeen Hospital as a precaution. They were later released.

Police launched an investigation and have now charged a 60-year-old Pictou County woman with four counts of abandoning a child.

The woman has been released and is due to appear in Pictou provincial court at a later date.