KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A woman in Malaysia suffered severe burns while she was using her mobile phone as her car was being refuelled at a petrol station in Setapak.

Witnesses said they saw the woman, 25, talking on her phone inside the car at around 1.25pm on Tuesday (June 28) at the petrol station in Taman Setapak Indah.

A worker at the station said he then saw smoke in the back of the vehicle and rushed to it. When he opened the door thick smoke gushed out from the car.

He said he and the others found the woman slumped in the back seat of the car.

It is learnt that the woman had placed the fuel nozzle in the receptacle when the phone rang. She moved into the back seat and closed the door to answer the call.

City Fire and Rescue Department chief operations officer Samsol Maarif Saibani said initial checks showed that there was no fire following the explosion.

"When we arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later, we found the victim with burns covering about 60 per cent of her body," he told The Star Online.

"The cause of the explosion seems to be due to the victim using her mobile phone while refuelling her car," he said.