The girl’s grandmother found her body, covered in a white blanket, in the kitchen, Sentul district police chief ACP R Munusamy said.

He said the murder took place about 9.30pm when the girl was playing with her uncle who lives elsewhere but comes by the house occasionally.

At that time, the girl’s mother was asleep with an infant on the upper floor of the double-storey house. The grandmother was on the ground floor.

He said the grandmother went out for a short while and, upon her return, went to the kitchen to fetch something.

She was shocked to see blood stains on the floor and a white blanket covering what seemed to be a body.

Munusamy said the grandmother started screaming when she saw her granddaughter’s body covered in blood.

“She rushed upstairs to inform the girl’s mother and spotted the girl’s uncle playing with the infant,” he said.

The girl’s mother sought the help of neighbours and took her daughter to a private hospital nearby where an examination found that she had been stabbed 30 times with a sharp object, Munusamy said.

The girl’s body was then sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a post-mortem.

Munusamy said the girl’s uncle was arrested at the house and the case was being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. He added that the police had yet to establish the motive for the killing.

He also said that the police had yet to find the object used in the killing and had only seized a shirt and a pair of black jeans which belonged to the man.

Munusamy did not say whether the man was suffering from mental problems.