A group of schoolchildren were locked inside a Perthshire leisure centre after staff left for a barbecue.
Leisure centre bosses have apologised to furious parents and said an investigation is under way.
The five girls had gone for a swim at the Beeches Road centre in Blairgowrie on Saturday evening.Staff closed up for the night at 8pm while the children were still getting changed.
Neil Stewart, whose 11-year-old daughter Emily was part of the group, said: “They were in the changing room when they heard a strange noise, which they later found out was someone setting the burglar alarm and locking up for the night.”
The building was in darkness when they made their way to the front door, he said.
The girls were trapped when they went into the foyer and a set of automatic doors shut tight behind them.By this time the burglar alarm had been activated,” said Mr Stewart.
“None of the children had phones so they couldn’t call for help.They actually had to breathe through the crack between the two main doors because the air was getting thin and the temperature was rising.”
Mum Tracy Barrie had arrived just after 8.10pm to pick up her daughters Emma and Caitlin.
“I pulled up and saw them at the glass door,” she said. “I had been painting all day and I didn’t want to get out of the car, so I waved them to come over.
“They were gesturing to me, but I couldn’t work out what they were saying.When I got out I could hear the alarm was going off and I could see that Emma was getting really distressed.”
Mrs Barrie tried to pull apart the doors herself but they wouldn’t budge. She called 999 and asked for police assistance. Trapped inside, the girls tried the only other exit from the foyer which led to a pitch dark corridor.
After fumbling along for some time, they reached another locked door and turned back.
Mandy MacGregor, who had arrived to collect her daughter Erin and Molly Kerr, said: “When I got there I saw the police car outside and there was two officers standing by the doors.
“Then I saw the girls behind the glass.Nobody could find anyone who had a set of keys.
“It took a lot of asking around and detective work to find out that the staff were at a barbecue at someone’s house.”
Eventually, the staff member who is believed to have locked the girls inside returned to open the doors.
Mrs MacGregor said: “He was telling us that he had checked inside before he locked up but he obviously couldn’t have looked very hard.”
It took nearly an hour to get the girls out.
Mr Stewart said: “Live Active shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. It could quite easily have been a catastrophe.”
A spokeswoman for the leisure firm said: “Live Active Leisure deeply regrets Saturday night’s upsetting incident.
“We apologise unreservedly to the girls and families involved and are currently carrying out a full internal investigation to ensure this does not happen again in future”.