A seven-year-old girl kept in an iron cage overnight by her mother was rescued by police after neighbours raised the alarm.

The mother, who is being investigated by police, faces losing custody of the child, according to reports.

The Star daily said that police were alerted by a neighbour in Serembanwho saw the child calling for help from the cage where she was kept the whole night as a punishment.

"When I got up to check, I saw this little girl in the iron cage. It was so sad to see a child calling out for her mother to release her," he told the daily.

"After a while, the cries stopped. I thought the mother had taken her in but that was not the case," he added. "I got angry. She must have been kept there the whole night."

Another neighbour said he had seen the child locked out of the front gates of the property, sometimes for several hours.

A police spokesman told the New Straits Times that the girl would most likely be sent to a welfare home while the mother was investigated.