Girl locked in ute for not eating food

Two US parents locked their five-year-old daughter in a ute in scorching heat for an hour because she would not eat her food, police said.

The unnamed child told a detective that she was locked in the vehicle as punishment while her parents shopped at a hardware store in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tuesday.

"Screaming, sweating, unsure and very scared," witness Sheena Mayorga told KOB-TV.

Mayorga and her fiancé spotted the girl in the car park, wet from head to toe and terrified.

Eventually she was pulled to safety through a rear sliding window on the ute.

The girl suffered heat exposure and had to be hospitalised when the temperature passed 32 degrees, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Her parents, Angelica Lerma-Montoya and Dulces Monge-Perez, are facing charges of child abuse causing great bodily harm.

They were arrested after they left the hardware store 45 minutes after the girl was rescued.

The girl has since been released from hospital and is doing well.