A 25-year-old Indonesian maid has accused her Malaysian employer of forcing her to eat excrement and drink from the toilet bowl in the latest alleged case of maid abuse in the country, police said today.

The maid claimed her 27-year-old employer in Kelantan also punched her in the eyes and smeared her body with excrement in the incident early Sunday, police spokesman Ishak Abdul Majid was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

After asking permission to clean herself, the maid managed to escape and complained to police before being hospitalised for treatment, he said. Police are investigating the case and have not arrested the employer who had recently had a baby, he added.

The allegations follow the country's worst maid abuse case in which 19-year-old Indonesian Nirmala Bonet was allegedly repeatedly burnt with an iron across her breasts, beaten and scalded with boiling water.

Her employer is on bail awaiting trial.

There are over 200,000 domestic workers in Malaysia, 90 percent of whom are Indonesians.

Maids often receive a mere RM400 a month - around one third of the average wage here - and many are forced to work from sunrise to sunset with little legal protection.