A 34-year-old maid from Myanmar has been arrested after being accused of killing a 95-year-old woman in a landed home in Upper Serangoon.

The police said they were alerted to a stabbing case in a residential unit in Recreation Road yesterday at about 1.50pm.

The elderly woman was found motionless at the scene and was pronounced dead by a paramedic.

The police have classified the case as murder.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim and the suspect knew each other.

When The Straits Times visited the crime scene, a two-storey semi-detached house, at about 6.30pm yesterday, police officers were seen going in and out of the home with bags of evidence.

The police had also cordoned off the front of the house as well as the kitchen at the back of the unit.

They left the crime scene at about 8pm.

A neighbour who declined to be named said he did not realise a murder had taken place until a family member who saw it on the news alerted him.

The man, in his 50s, said he got a shock when he opened his door and "saw police cars swarming outside".

He said he last saw the elderly woman seated by herself on a chair in the garden some weeks ago.

Another neighbour, a man in his 30s who wanted to be known only as Daniel, said he saw the elderly woman recently when he was jogging past the house and nothing seemed amiss.

He also did not notice anything out of the ordinary yesterday, he added.

"It's shocking to hear that something like this has happened," said Daniel, who works in business development.

He added that the neighbourhood tends to be quiet and that he was not aware of any major conflicts among his neighbours.

Early yesterday evening, preparations for a wake were being made at the house, with tables, fans and tentage set up.

Close to 10 people, who appeared to be family members of the victim, also arrived in a few cars and entered a house just adjacent to the home where the crime happened.

They went to the crime scene later in the night and several women were heard crying at the unit.

A man, who said he was a grandson of the victim but declined to be named, told reporters in Mandarin that his grandmother and her son had lived together in the house.

The family owns a few neighbouring units on the same road but the grandson said he lives elsewhere.

The suspect is expected to be charged in court tomorrow.

• Additional reporting by Wong Shiying