Amsterdam police have released dramatic dashcam footage showing parts of the rescue of two children from a burning car on Rotterdam’s A20 motorway.

Police were alerted to the car fire by another driver and when they arrived at the scene, they saw a white van had stopped and its driver was already attempting to free the children.

Service technician Vincent Bakker told the AD he had no doubts about what to do when he saw the car. ‘ I hurled my van onto the hard shoulder and ran to the car,’ he said. ‘The mother got out and she did not realise the car was on fire. She’d only seen smoke. Then she started screaming “my children, my children”,’ Bakker said.

The car was locked and the doors could not be opened because of the electric locks. Bakker managed to smash open the glass in one door with his bare hands and got the baby out.

The police video shows him running back to his van to get a crowbar to smash the back window so the boy, aged 3, could be brought to safety. He was rescued by a police officer who climbed in and ‘lost most of his curls’ because by then the fire had properly taken hold.

The children and Bakker were uninjured, apart from a few scratches.