By : David Yeow and Fay Angela D'cruz

KUALA LUMPUR: Cases of loan sharks using violence to recover their debts have escalated in the past few years.

Recently, loan sharks have resorted to murder and illegal imprisonment. Below are some of the reports:

- May 11, 2009: A bad debt of more than RM300,000 ($124,230) to loan sharks triggered the abduction and murder of 3-year-old Lee Li Xuan in Perak. The debt was incurred by a family member. Her body was found floating in a river several days after she went missing.

- May 7, 2009: An elderly woman died after two men slammed her head against the wall in her house in Kampung Besar, Tasek Gelugor. Tom Salleh, 86, died without regaining consciousness. She was believed to have been attacked by two men who came looking for her son who owed them RM2,000.

- March 2008: A 51-year-old woman was overpowered by three men near her office, who took turns to sexually abuse her. She had borrowed RM7,000 from loan sharks and when she could not repay the full sum, they ambushed her at a stairwell near an isolated fifth-floor office in Cheras.

- March 2007: Loan sharks attacked a heavily pregnant woman after her husband failed to settle his RM60,000 loan. After constant harassment, she managed to settle the amount.

- December 2006: Seah Wong Chong and his wife Kau Mei Lin killed their three children and attempted suicide after loan sharks harassed and threatened to kill them.