A burglar was arrested after he fell asleep in the house of a lecturer he had broken into in Setia Alam, yesterday.

Sinar Harian reported the incident occurred about 2.30am when the burglar broke into the female lecturer's house when he was fleeing the police.

The Malay daily spoke to the 29-year-old victim, who only wanted to be identified as Siti, who said she was asleep was she heard a loud noise in the house, which turned out to be the sound of the suspect breaking a window.

She found herself confronted with the suspect, who did not threaten her, but merely asked her to not raise any alarm.

"At the time, I had my mobile phone with me, but I was not brave enough to call anyone to ask for help. I was frozen in fear.

"The suspect also appeared fidgety, as he tried to find various ways to exit the house, including through the bathroom and the kitchen, but he couldn't as the police were outside. I was afraid he would use the knives in the kitchen to harm me, but luckily, nothing happened," she was quoted as saying.

The suspect also asked the woman for a change of clothes, and after about of an hour of exhaustively failing to find a way out, he went into one of the rooms and fell asleep.

Seizing the opportunity, Siti quickly got out of the house and alerted the police, who promptly arrested the "sleepy" burglar, said the report.

Siti is married but her husband was out of town as he was attending a course, it added.

According to Shah Alam police chief ACP Shafien Mamat, police had earlier raided the apartment where the incident occurred after receiving a tip-off that the suspect, and four others, who had committed a robbery in Setia Alam on April 28, were staying there.

Apart from the local suspect, police also arrested a Vietnamese woman while two other members of the gang managed to flee. Another member reportedly fell to his death as he was trying to flee.