Kuala Lumpur  - A Malaysian woman suffered a fractured skull and ribs, and had to have nearly 100 stitches, claiming she was attacked by her Indonesian maid, news reports said Saturday.

Phang Kian Huang, 42, claimed that her maid had entered her room early Thursday while she was asleep and began attacking her with a wooden stool.

"She left and came back with a knife and started slashing. I pretended to lose consciousness," Phang was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

Phang, whose left ear was almost severed in the attack, alleged that the maid then returned a third time and threw a stone mortar at her, fracturing her skull and several ribs.

She said she managed to call for help when the maid later left to collect Phang's children from school.

"She pretended as if nothing had happened and told the police that I was a robbery victim. She had messed up my house and acted as if someone had ransacked the house for valuables," Phang said.

Phang said the maid, who had been working with her for 21 months, was possibly angry over an argument the two had the day earlier, the report said.

Police have remanded the maid for a week for questioning.

While local reports of Malaysian employers abusing or mistreating their maids are relatively common, stories of vicious attacks by maids are rare.

Official records showed that by mid-2007, more than 30 per cent of the 2 million registered foreign workers in Malaysia were maids, many of them Indonesians or Filipinas. (dpa)