KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN police rescued three men shackled to the wall of a filthy room for two months by illegal moneylenders after failing to repay their debts, an official said on Thursday.

Newspapers published photographs of the men wearing soiled clothes and tethered by their necks in heavy iron chains to the wall. Firefighters later used a chain saw to free them.

Police found the men in an empty shop in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday after getting a tip from another man who had recently been held by loan sharks, said a district police official who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to make public statements.

The victims had not been allowed to change clothes, were repeatedly beaten with sticks and fed only bread and water every few days during their captivity, The Star and New Straits Times newspapers reported.

They each owed between RM1,500 (S$600) and RM4,000 ($1,650). The moneylenders had been trying to force their families to settle the debts before the men would be freed, The Star and New Straits Times newspapers reported.

The men sobbed uncontrollably when they saw their rescuers, the reports said.

Police arrested two alleged moneylenders suspected of locking up the men, the district police official said. The case has been classified as a kidnapping, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, the New Straits Times said.

Cases of loan sharks resorting to intimidation and assaults to retrieve money are common in Malaysia. But officials say the use of violence has escalated in recent years, with moneylenders occasionally abducting or even killing their victims.

People unable to secure bank loans often turn to loan sharks, who lend money at inflated rates of interest - in some cases up to 40 per cent on the principal amount each month. -- AP