KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia - An 80-year-old woman who refused to lend her nephew RM5 was assaulted with an iron rod causing the octogenarian to suffer multiple bodily injuries.

She was rushed to the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital here by family members who found her lying unconscious in a pool of blood in the kitchen of her kampung house at Padang Tegir, Manir, near here.

In the 9am incident, the nephew demanded money from her but she refused because he was a drug addict.

The victim's sister-in-law, who only wanted to be known as Kak, said the victim's nephew was enraged and left the house.

"He returned an hour later, wearing a mask and begun hitting my sister-in-law with the iron rod," she said when met at the hospital here, yesterday.

Kak said the victim's husband, Abas Othman, also 80 and who was at a restaurant at that time, saw the assailant dashing out from his house when he returned after breakfast.

"This is when all of us knew that the assailant was no stranger and lodged a police report," she said.

Kak admitted that the assailant had string of criminal records and was even banished in 2006.

The victim who was warded at the critical ward was transferred to a normal ward at about 6.15pm yesterday after her condition improved.

Police later detained the assailant at the bus terminal here.