Mother charged with putting two-year-old daughter in the oven

Officials say a 35-year-old Texas woman has been charged after her daughter, aged 2, suffered burns and witnesses said she told them she had put the child in the oven.

The Somervell County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called to a home because a child had burns.

The sheriff’s office says witnesses told deputies upon arrival that Tasha Shontell Hatcher said that she had put her child in the oven.

The girl was then airlifted to a Dallas burn centre, where she was treated for second- and third-degree burns.

Hatcher was charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury and arraigned.

A spokeswoman from Child Protective Services said the child will be placed in foster care when she is dismissed from the hospital.

Neighbours were shocked by the news and said Hatcher seemed like a loving parent, KDFW reports.

“I really would’ve never, ever... expected this out of her — never,” said a family friend. “I wasn’t even sure when I heard it that it was true. It’s... unimaginable.”