(SF)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A young Muslim couple tried to speed off when Malaysian police caught them making out in their car but got into an accident, causing a five-car pile up, a report said Wednesday.

A police patrol car spotted the couple locked in an intimate embrace late Monday in their car parked at a hypermarket in Muar town in southern Johor state, The Star newspaper said.

As the patrol car neared them, the couple sped out of the car park onto a main road and collided with a passing car, causing three other vehicles to crash, the report said.

The unidentified couple, both in their 20s, have been detained and the man has been booked for reckless driving, it said.

Muar traffic police officer Lim Aik Sin told the daily that the couple have been referred to the district Islamic religious department. The man is a factory worker in nearby Malacca state while the woman, from Johor, studies in a college in Kuala Lumpur, Lim was quoted as saying.

Lim couldn't be reached for further details and other Muar police officers declined to comment.

Unmarried Muslim couples found alone together in a private place can be charged for "khalwat," or "close proximity," which is a crime under Malaysia's Islamic laws and carries a jail sentence of up to two months.

Malay Muslims, who comprise about 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people, are subject to Islamic morality laws. Chinese, Indian and other minorities come under the country's civil laws.

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