HER car was being hijacked and Ipoh clerk Surianty Surifin was in a frenzy - her two young sons were in the back seat.

Desperate to save them, the 30-year-old clung on to the door of the moving vehicle and was dragged along the road for 100m.

But it wasn't Madam Surianty's courage which saved her boys. It was an empty fuel tank.

The New Straits Times reported that Madam Surianty had taken her sons, Mohd Fahrul Alif, 1, and Mohd Alif Rohaizad, 3, shopping on Thursday afternoon.

She stopped at a toy shop and left the boys in her Proton Saga as she ran in to buy something for them.

When Madam Surianty returned to the car, a man shoved her inside and took the driver's seat.

She said: "I was pushed to the back seat. I tried to grab my boys and get out by the back door but the car was already moving and gaining speed."

Madam Surianty was dragged along as she held onto the car door. But eventually, she was thrown off when the carjackers slammed on the brakes.

As the car sped off again, she heard her sons scream.

Madam Surianty was then picked up by a driver, lawyer Anuar Abd Aziz, 31, who tried to follow her car. But he lost it after a 5km chase.

Fortunately for Madam Surianty, her car was low on petrol.

And while the lawyer drove Madam Surianty to the police station to make a report, the carjacker was forced to abandon the car in a back alley with its fuel tank empty.

Madam Surianty had just RM$10 ($4) worth of petrol in her car before the hijack, and it wasn't enough for the carjacker to get too far.

Ipoh police chief ACP Jalaludin Ibrahim said before the police could find Madam Surianty's car, they received information that it had been located.

Sin Chew Daily reported that the car was abandoned near a coffeeshop, and the customers who heard the two boy's cries called the police.

The two boys were traumatised and bawling in the back seat, but were otherwise unharmed.

Madam Surianty was also lucky. She suffered only scrapes on her legs and feet. Her husband, Mr Mohd Nizar Mat Seraf, 31, an Ipoh city council supervisor, said he was thankful that nothing happened to his children, but in the hour that his boys were missing, he almost lost his mind.

The couple have another 8-year-old who was in school at the time of the incident.

The police have classified the case as kidnapping of a child under 10 years and advised parents not to leave their children in the car unsupervised.

Meanwhile, in Johor, a 29-year-old woman may now be disfigured, after two snatch thieves smashed her car's window and stole her handbag.

Ms Yu Xue Ni was cut on the face by one of the glass shards and received 16 stitches for her wound.

She told Sin Chew Daily that she was driving home on 6 Aug around 11pm when she was attacked. Ms Yu was right outside her home but did not get out of the car as she was answering a phone call.

Just then, a man used a hammer and smashed her car window to grab her handbag in the front passenger's seat. The man then rode off on his accomplice's
motorcycle.

Ms Yu said she realised she was hurt only when she felt the blood on her face.

She was sent to the hospital for treatment by her housemate.

Johor police have not made any arrests yet.