The authorities are investigating a 20-year-old Chinese national with apparent Sars symptoms who was arrested for trying to sneak in from Singapore while another four new suspected cases were reported today.

The woman has been hospitalised and the Health Ministry is trying to get more information o­n her situation, ministry deputy director general Ismail Merican told reporters.

The Star newspaper said the woman and three Malaysian men, aged between 19 and 22, were found squeezed in the boot of a car late Wednesday while trying to cross the causeway into Johor from Singapore.

The car driver escaped while the four have been referred to health officials after they were found to have fever and cough, it said.

The woman arrived in Singapore o­n April 11 with a valid travel document but had no visa to enter Malaysia, while the three men who had worked in Singapore for two years have had their travel documents impounded, it added.

The daily said there has been an influx of Singaporeans into Johor to take refuge from Sars, which has killed 17 people in the island republic.

Increase in visitors

Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman said some 2.8 million Singaporeans had crossed into Johor in the first week of April, compared to o­nly 680,000 last month.

Thousands of Malaysians travel daily to the island-state to work. Singaporeans are also the biggest group of visitors to Malaysia, making it tough for the two governments to impose strict checks.

Both countries earlier this month set up a joint border health committee to tighten controls at entry points.

Singapore has installed thermal imaging scanners at border checkpoints into Johor following complaints from Malaysia over its allegedly lax screening.

First health-care worker

Ismail told reporters that a 35-year-old hospital attendant in northern Perak state, who had worked in the Sars isolation ward earlier this month, was among four new suspected Sars cases.

She is the first healthcare worker in the country to display Sars symptoms. Asked if this was a local transmission, Ismail said the ministry was still verifying her case.

Malaysia says all its Sars patients contracted the disease from abroad and there has been no local transmission so far.

The other three cases were a 25-year-old man staying in Johor but working for a shipyard in Singapore, a 21-year-old bus driver who frequently visits Singapore and a 29-year-old man who had visited Beijing.

Two people have died from Sars in Malaysia. - AFP