Police, who led the reporter of a Chinese daily to the market where an auction of a Vietnamese woman was alleged to have taken place, say the incident never took place.

Two of the persons quoted in the report told police they had not spoken to the reporter.

"There was no auction. They cannot remember speaking to the reporter," Selangor CID chief Hadi Ho Abdullah was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times .

"There is no indication of an auction having taken place, nor can we be certain if the woman in question was a Vietnamese," he added.

The May 2 report in the Chinese Guang Ming daily, in which it was claimed that a Vietnames woman had been auctioned off at the Kampung Sungai Terentang market in Gombak, led to a flurry of foreign press reports that she was sold to a 60-year old man for RM18,000.

This prompted a protest note from the Vietnamese embassy.

Mere rumours

The chairwoman of the Vietnamese women's union, Ha Thi Khiet, has also written an open letter to her Malaysian counterpart to describe the case as "offensive towards women's honour and dignity."

However, police officers from Gombak who took the Petaling Jaya-based reporter to the market yesterday discovered that the initial report were based on mere rumours.

The woman, said the police, had accompanied a kitchen utensils peddler and helped him to set up his stall. They left together after four hours.

Rumours subsequently began that the woman, allegedly a Vietnamese, had been auctioned off.

"There is no indication of an auction having taken place, nor can we be certain if the woman in question was a Vietnamese," said Hadi.

He did not comment on whether action would be taken against the daily.