Parents travelling in Croatia yesterday realised after driving 200km (125 miles) that they had left their 11-year-old daughter at a highway rest area, police said.
An employee at the Rascane rest area in southern Croatia informed police that a woman had called saying her child, a foreign citizen, was missing, according to a police statement that did not specify her nationality.
Officers found the girl, who was unharmed but scared and crying, at the rest area where the frightened parents arrived a few hours later.
The mother said they had been travelling in a group with several cars, and had assumed her daughter was in one of them.
No charges were filed, the statement said.
Croatia is visited by millions of tourists annually who flock mainly to its Adriatic coast.
