Its hard to be a maid in Malaysia. Your employer may starve you to death

Malaysian police have detained a couple over the alleged murder of a Cambodian maid after the 24-year-old woman died of possible prolonged starvation, police said on Thursday.

Mey Sichan's employers telephoned for an ambulance on March 31 but paramedics found her dead on arrival, Mr Nasir Salleh, police chief of the northern state of Penang, told AFP. She also had bruises to her body.

A post-mortem revealed that she died from acute gastritis and ulcers likely due to lack of food over a long period, he said. The maid had been working for the family, who manage a hardware shop, for eight months.

'Definitely what happened to Sichan is inhumane. It is a shock to us,' the police chief said.

Sichan's body weight had shrunk to 26kg, almost half that of a healthy woman, he said.

Police detained a couple, the maid's employers, on Saturday, and are also questioning three workers of their shop to assist in the murder probe - AFP