A Malaysian police officer was killed after being rammed by a getaway vehicle driven by suspected burglars during a robbery in the state of Kedah, prompting a murder investigation and fresh public concern over safety amid a rise in property crime nationwide. Corporal Mohd Hafizul Izham Mazlan, 35, died on Thursday afternoon in Alor Setar after stepping out of his patrol car and being struck by a Lexus SUV as four suspects attempted to flee the scene of a house break-in in the Taman Golf residential area. The father of three suffered severe injuries to his head and body and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. He is survived by his wife and children aged four, nine and eleven. Kedah state police commissioner Adzli Abu Samah said the suspects were arrested shortly after the incident, including one at the scene and the other three around 12km (7.5 miles) away in Kepala Batas. The group had abandoned their original vehicle and hijacked another car from an elderly couple, forcing the husband out of the driver’s seat while the wife remained inside. The stolen car “was then involved in an accident in Kepala Batas before the police managed to arrest all the suspects around the area,” the commissioner said. All four suspects – aged between 24 and 26 – are believed to be from the southern state of Johor, some 700km (435 miles) away. Two of them each have dozens of prior convictions, mostly related to house break-ins and car theft. Police believe the men are part of a burglary syndicate operating across Peninsular Malaysia. Authorities are treating the case as murder, which in Malaysia carries the death penalty upon conviction. Their arrest comes amid growing public concern over property-related crimes. The latest available government data shows house break-ins and theft rose by 10 per cent between 2022 and 2023, with 11,557 cases reported. Broader property crimes, including vehicle thefts, rose by 4 per cent to 41,991 cases during the same period. Security concerns have led more Malaysians to seek out gated communities or high-rise residential units with surveillance systems, fuelling demand for such developments in urban and suburban areas. Mohd Hafizul’s death is the second reported attack on police officers this month. On August 2, Constable Mohd Nadzri Sudiman of the Pudu police station in Kuala Lumpur was stabbed while on patrol by a 56-year-old man believed to be under the influence of heroin. He suffered a 7cm-deep wound to the abdomen, which damaged his small intestine but did not strike any vital organs. He survived the attack and was taken to hospital for treatment. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, has 14 prior criminal records involving drugs and other violent offences, according to police.