Faisal Halim was burned on the neck, shoulder, hands and chest after the attack.©
A Malaysian national footballer has suffered second-degree burns after being splashed with acid during an attack at a shopping mall last weekend, a sports official said. National team player Faisal Halim was burned to the neck, shoulder, hands and chest during Sunday's attack in Petaling Jaya district outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, according to Najwan Halimi, a sports official in Selangor state. Faisal, 26, is a winger at Selangor Football Club.
“I strongly condemn this violence and urge the police to bring the perpetrator to justice,” Najwan said in a statement late on Sunday.
Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan was quoted by private television station Astro Awani on Monday as saying a male suspect had been arrested, although he did not reveal a motive.
In a photo that went viral online, a visibly shaken Faisal was seen wearing brown pants, sitting on a bench with burn marks on his body.
The attack came three days after another national player, Akhyar Rashid, was injured in a robbery outside his home in the eastern state of Terengganu.
Akhyar, 25, was beaten with an iron bar by two unknown suspects and suffered injuries to his head and leg that required stitches, local media reported.
Local police chief Azli Noor said the suspects fled after taking Akhyar's money.
Football Association of Malaysia president Hamidin Mohamad Amin said he was “angry and sad” about both attacks.
“The people of Malaysia pray that Akhyar and Faisal recover quickly and return to action,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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