"Sayang Ibu" (Love you, Mom) were the last words uttered by Muhammad Asyraaf Abdullah, 4, to his mother before he suffocated to death in an abandoned car belonging to his father here yesterday.

"Muhammad Asyraaf said these words the night before he went to sleep... I didn't think that it was a sign my adopted son was going to leave me forever," Zainun Mohamad, 38, said when met at her house in Kampung Kelibang here.

She was at work in a shopping complex here when she received a phone call from her husband, Ariffin Zainuddin, 43, at 4pm yesterday, saying Muhammad Asyraaf was unconscious after being trapped in the car parked beside their house.

"Asyraaf was taken to hospital and when I got there, I was told my son was no more," she sobbed.

Zainun said Muhammad Asyraaf was usually left with a babysitter when she was working but after Ariffin stopped working for the past few months, Asyraaf was left with her husband.

"True, he was an active child and even before this I used to see him playing in that car but nothing ever happened," she said.

He son remains were buried here last night.

Kuah assemblyman Nor Saidi Nayan visited Zainun's family and handed over a contribution to her.