multiple queries with PHP

I want to SELECT * from a table and also update the hit counter by 1. So theres 2 different queries which I know I can easily do in PHP seperately, but I thought itd be quicker and more efficient to run them in the same query, ie seperated by a ';'. But PHP returns an error, and it works fine on the command line. I read somewhere thats its a security risk in PHP to allow 2 queries, so its turned off by default. Is this true?