Police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle two babies into Malaysia from neighbouring Indonesia in a styrofoam box, a report said today.

The New Sunday Times newspaper said police rescued the two infants - a two-month-old boy and a two-week-old girl - and detained a local man at a pier in the southern Johor state.

The babies were hidden in a styrofoam box of the type used to keep fish and could have been brought in from Indonesia's Batam island by boat, it said.

Sound asleep

The babies were sound asleep when they were discovered as they had been fed milk laced with sleeping pills.

An envelope containing birth certificates, believed to have been issued by a clinic in Indonesia, was also seized.

District police chief Tajudin Mohamad Isa said the babies had been placed under the care of a public hospital. A hospital spokesman said the infants were in good health. - AFP