KUALA LUMPUR • Two people, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 30s, have been arrested as Malaysian police investigate the brutal murder of an Irishman in Penang.

Mr Brian Patrick O'Reilly's body was found on Monday, tied up and covered in stab wounds at a high-end condominium in George Town.

Police are also hunting a third person, described as a "fair-skinned foreign man".

The three people were seen entering the condominium in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah with Mr O'Reilly late last Friday, and leaving shortly afterwards.

He had been working as an IT manager for about a month, official news agency Bernama reported, citing the police.

The 50-year-old Irishman had been posted to Malaysia by Singapore-based company First Lookout Marketing, local police official Che Zaimani Che Awang was cited as saying in media reports.

"A check of the man's home found a safe in one of the rooms had been ransacked and there were signs of a struggle," Mr Che Zaimani told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr O'Reilly's hands had reportedly been tied together with shoelaces and his legs were bound with cloth.

The police believe he was stabbed in his stomach and slashed in the neck, and may also have been hit with a pot and frying pan.

His blood-soaked body was discovered by a property agent who was visiting his condominium unit.

A cryptic handwritten note with an angry message directed at "scammers" was found next to Mr O'Reilly. It read: "I respected the Police & Still Do But Justice Sometimes has to be Gained. I Hate you Mafia Killing Scamers, I Love My Girl..."

Mr Che Zaimani said closed-circuit television footage showed that the "fair-skinned foreign man" was last seen leaving the victim's unit at 12.09pm on Saturday.

"He went out alone carrying a suitcase. He left the building in an Audi," the official said.

Mr Che Zaimani said the property agent who found Mr O'Reilly's body had been appointed by the victim's company to provide accommodation for its employees.

"The property agent had contacted him (Mr O'Reilly) because he wanted to repair the air-conditioner at his office on Saturday," said Mr Che Zaimani.

"When he went to the victim's residence, a fair-skinned man answered the door, saying that the victim was unwell and the appointment had to be cancelled."

Mr Che Zaimani also said the property agent tried to contact the victim again on his mobile phone on Monday but to no avail.

"Acting on instructions from the Singapore office, the agent got a locksmith to break into the house.

"It was then that he found the victim in the master bedroom, soaked in blood," he said.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE