NEIGHBOURS of two-year-old Natalie Nikie Alisyia Sallehan were shocked over her death.

They were also taken aback to hear that the toddler's 26-year-old father had been arrested for her death, which has been classified as murder by the police.

VIDEO A tragic end (2:29)

Housewife Normah Udin, 43, who lives three doors away, said that she did not hear anything out of the ordinary on Tuesday evening.

She was watching television when she saw her neighbour and his wife hurrying along the corridor from their 11th-floor flat in Block 191 Boon Lay Drive.

'He was carrying a child, who appeared motionless and I heard the wife telling him in Malay: 'Quickly, quickly! You have money, don't you?'', she told reporters.

Civil Defence paramedics later found the mother at the void deck cradling the unconscious child.

Doctors at the National University Hospital tried to resuscitate the girl but she was dead by 9.30pm.

Police came to the flat 30 minutes later and the mother returned with a relative about an hour later, neighbours said.

Police left at 2am.

There was no one in the flat on Wednesday.

Madam Normah said that the couple moved into the rented flat last October.

She said that the couple have three children and the eldest is about three years old while the youngest is a three-month-old baby.

'It's so sad that their two-year-old daughter had died,' she added.

She also said that the couple kept to themselves and the children did not play with neighbours' kids.

Neighbours said that the man would leave for work at 8am but they do not know what he does.

They said he is heavily tattooed on the arms and neck.

They described his wife as being plump with hair up to her elbows.

'Although they did not talk to us, they would smile when we pass them on the corridor,' said Madam Normah.