Higher education minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said he had read reports about the issue online, but needed more information.

“I will get more information from the UM management,” Kosmo reported him as saying in Cyberjaya today.

A viral video of the scene had briefly featured a couple on a bed.

UM issued an apology this morning, saying the competition rules require each performance to be free of “negative elements, provocation or content that can affect religious, moral, ethical, and cultural values as well as the university’s good name”.

It said checks found that the controversial scene was not in the original script vetted beforehand, and that this was a breach of the competition rules.

It also said the play had been disqualified from the competition and that steps were being taken to increase monitoring of performances and ensure that such incidents do not recur.