KUALA LUMPUR - About 155 Uygur illegal immigrants, including 76 children, have been detained by the Malaysian authorities, local media reported on Saturday.

The Star, a local English-language newspaper, said that the Malaysian immigration officers raided two apartment units in Taman Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, and found these illegal immigrants.

Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department enforcement operations unit chief Basri Hassan said that 65 of the illegal immigrants, including 32 children, were crammed into one apartment unit, while the other 90, including 44 children, were found in the second unit.

The illegal immigrants are now being detained for further investigation.

Malaysia has tightened security at all immigration checkpoints following a report in The Jakarta Post that four Chinese Uygur militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group had transited in Malaysia before being arrested in Indonesia.