A farmer was found dead with part of his body charred in an oil palm smallholding in Kampung Alor Serdang, Tuesday night.

Setiu police chief DSP Abdul Rahman Raja Mohammad said the victim, Roslan Abd Manaf, 55, was found at about 7.55 pm by villagers who happened to be passing through the victim's smallholding.

"From an inspection of the incident scene, we found part of the victim's body burnt and a section of the bushes where the body was found scorched.

"We do not rule out the possibility of the victim lighting up the bushes and falling into the fire after suffering shortness of breath," he told Bernama.

Abdul Rahman said the victim was usually at the farm at 9am to clean up his smallholding.

He said the body of the victim from Kampung Anak Ikan was sent to Setiu Hospital for a post-mortem.

The case was classified as sudden death.