ELDERLY ABANDONED IN DESERTED MALAYSIAN OLD FOLKS HOME

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - In the midst of Kuala Lumpur City, an old lorry stands in the driveway and there's trash piled up behind it. 

The double-storey house once an old folk's home  appears to be deserted.
But beyond the padlocked gate and the front door secured only by a nylon string, there was a scene out of a nightmare; five aged and infirm people abandoned to live in squalor. 
The house has no water supply and food is brought to the five every now and then. Neighbours who had believed the house in Taman Wahyu had been vacant for at least a year, were shocked to find them amidst the stench and garbage.

• A resident, P. Duraimohan, 53, decided to investigate claims of strange sounds, including muffled cries, coming from the house.
• "We informed the security guards and I decided to enter the house.
• "When I asked if anyone was in, I was shocked to see an old woman coming down the stairs," said the secretary of the residents' asso- ciation of the housing area yesterday.
• Duraimohan said he found four other old people on the first floor - three men (two Chinese and an Indian) - and an emaciated Indian woman.
• "They were skinny and unbathed. One man was lying on the floor and surrounded by so much rubbish that I did not even notice him there at first," he said.

Duraimohan said the premises used to be one of three houses used as an old folk's home for more than 10 years.

"About two years ago, the houses were vacated but we thought the operators had kept this one as a store," he added. 

Leong Soo Ah, 66, one of the women found in the house told The Star that she and the four others had been living there for two months, adding that it was a "temporary arrangement".

"We were supposed to move to Batang Berjuntai," she said.

Source: Agency