MIRI (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Shoppers at a commercial centre in Malaysia beat up a youth, who was found molesting a six-year-old old girl and unzipping her pants, before making a citizen's arrest.

They hauled him to the security guards and alerted the police mobile unit. The youth was arrested.

The incident happened at the E-Mart commercial centre in the Kuala Baram district some 20km north of Miri city on Wednesday (Dec 14) evening.

Miri police chief Asst Comm Khoo Leng Huat confirmed the incident.

Members of the public at the E-Mart shopping complex saw the youth trying to lure the little girl to the top floor of the shopping complex.

They saw the youth forcing himself on her and fondling her private parts while trying to unzip her pants, and swiftly intervened.

The top floor is a secluded place where kitchen equipment are kept.

The youth was beaten up before he could do worse things to the girl. He was taken to the security office before the police were alerted.

"We (police) call on parents to be more careful with their children when they are in public places," he said on Thursday.

Initial investigation showed that the six-year-old victim was the daughter of a trader who was operating a stall in the vicinity.

The police believed that the molester is an Indonesian but there were no personal identification documents found on him.

He had been placed in the police lock-up pending further probe.

The victim has been sent to the Miri hospital for check-up.

In another molest case, a young woman lodged a police report that a man had grabbed her private parts while she was tending to her three-year-old child.

The incident allegedly happened at the shoplot in the Pujut 7 residential area, some 10km outside Miri city on Wednesday.

The woman said the suspect, believed to be an Indonesian, had approached her while she was with her child.

He pretended to offer some food to her child.

She claimed he suddenly fondled her and grabbed her private parts.

ACP Khoo confirmed that the victim had lodged a police report and the case was being investigated.