A man was left perched atop a seven-metre billboard for nearly seven hours after an accomplice who was helping him steal its spotlight fled the scene.

His partner in crime ran off - carrying both the light and the ladder - when police spotted the pair in a southern Kuala Lumpur suburb early Sunday, the Star daily reported.

But he refused to come down, swinging at would-be rescuers with a steel rod during nearly seven hours of negotiations with authorities.

As the day warmed up, firefighters threw buckets of water over him to keep him from getting dehydrated and also supplied him with cigarettes and a packed lunch.

"We thought at first that he was a billboard cleaner or something but when we returned from our prayers about two hours later, he was still there," one local resident was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"Despite attempts to persuade the suspect to come down, he refused and was content to sit up there," local assistant police chief Amer Awal said, the New Straits Times reported. The police were waiting for him below.

Finally, firefighters on a raised platform eventually nabbed the man while colleagues distracted him by spraying water.

He was on Monday in police custody.