A Malaysian mother died after her husband allegedly bashed her face with a hammer in their home in the east coast state of Terengganu.

Ms Rubiah Sabtu, who has seven children aged between 18 years and six months, was found dead in the living room of her house in Kampung Besol, about 95km from the state capital of Kuala Terengganu. The incident is believed to have taken place at around 8am on Wednesday.

Police said she had severe injuries to her right eye, forehead, nose, mouth, right ear and head, which were believed to have been caused by a hammer.

Blood was also found splattered on the floor and walls of the house.

Dungun district police chief Baharudin Abdullah said on Wednesday that the incident was likely to have been triggered by a misunderstanding between Ms Rubiah, 41, and her husband, aged 32.

“It is learnt that there was a disagreement between the couple. The terrified suspect then left the house (after the incident) and informed his relatives living nearby,” national news agency Bernama quoted Mr Baharudin as saying.

The relatives then lodged a police report and the husband, who is a construction worker, was arrested by the police on Wednesday.

The suspect is now being detained for seven days while the police investigate the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

The couple had been married for just a year and have a six-month-old daughter.

Ms Rubiah, who had run a sundry shop, had six other children from an earlier marriage.

At the time of the incident, only the couple and the baby were at home. The child was found unharmed.

Ms Rubiah’s eldest son, Mr Mohamad Daniel Mohd Radzi, 18, was still in shock over the circumstances surrounding the death of his mother, whom he described as “very loving”.

He said that although there were occasional fights between the couple, his stepfather was kind to his mother.

Mr Rozilan Yusof, who is Ms Rubiah’s stepbrother, said his brother-in-law was a good, calm and quiet person.

“I am very shocked to learn he is capable of doing such a thing,” Malaysian daily Berita Harian quoted him as saying.

He said he last spoke to Ms Rubiah at 1am on April 4 because she wanted to borrow a table fan.

“Usually if there is a problem, she will tell me, and I noticed yesterday (April 4) that she looked a bit sad but I didn’t ask her why,” added Mr Rozilan.