THAIS SAFE AS QUAKE TOLL RISES
KUALA LUMPUR: Rescuers yesterday recovered the bodies of 11 more climbers killed in an earthquake on Southeast Asia’s highest mountain, bringing the total number of dead to 13.
Four tourists from Thailand who were hiking on the mountain when the quake struck on Friday were confirmed as safe, the Foreign Ministry said.
Six people remained missing on Mount Kinabalu in eastern Sabah state, where a magnitude-6.0 earthquake sent rocks and boulders raining down the trekking routes, trapping dozens of climbers.
Climbers from 16 countries had been stranded on the 4,095m mountain on Borneo, including 117 Malaysians, 38 Singaporeans, five Americans, four Dutch, three British, two French and two Australians, he said.
There were also tourists from Belgium, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Denmark and China.
“This is a very sad day for Kinabalu,” said Sabah’s tourism minister, Masidi Manjun.
Nine of the bodies found yesterday were flown out by helicopter, while the other two were carried down on foot, district police official Farhan Lee Abdullah said.
Most of the other climbers came down the mountain in the darkness early yesterday, some with broken limbs and one in a coma.
Police said earlier yesterday that they were looking for 17 other people, including eight Singaporeans and one each from China, the Philippines and Japan. The rest are Malaysians. The nationalities of the 11 bodies found yesterday were not yet clear.
Twenty-nine students and eight teachers from Tanjong Katong Primary School were on a field trip to Kota Kinabalu, according to a statement from Singapore’s Ministry of Education. Of these, seven students and two teachers remained missing as of yesterday afternoon, the ministry said.
In addition, 58 students and eight teachers from Greenridge Secondary School and Fuchun Secondary School returned to Singapore late on Friday night, according to a separate statement from the ministry. Singapore has sent a team of counsellors, police and rescuers to assist.
The bodies of Peony Wee Ying Ping, a 12-year-old student from Singapore, and Robbie Sapinggi, a 30-year-old mountain guide, were brought down and taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu for post mortem examinations, The Star newspaper reported yesterday, citing Farhan Lee Abdullah, Ranau district’s police chief.
KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan of the Malaysian state Sabah blamed Friday’s fatal earthquake on a group of 10 foreigners who “showed disrespect to the sacred mountain” by posing naked at the peak a few days ago. He said a special ritual would be conducted later to “appease the mountain spirit”.
The foreigners, who included two Canadians, two Dutch and a German national, broke away from their entourage and stripped naked before taking photos at the mountain peak on May 30, officials have said.
Five of the tourists are believed to still be in Malaysia and will be barred from leaving for committing the offence of gross indecency, police have said.
Mount Kinabalu is sacred to the local Kadazan Dusun tribe, who consider it a resting place for departed spirits.
Malaysian social media users and some officials have suggested the quake was a sign the spirits were angry by taking the nude photos and posting them on the internet.
“This will certainly bring misfortune ... we can’t play with the spirit of the sacred mountain,” deputy state chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan told reporters Saturday. He called for the tourists to be brought to justice.
Crews and officials engaged in further search and rescue efforts were kept on edge, however, by aftershocks including a temblor yesterday afternoon that Malaysian officials rated at 4.5-magnitude.
It sent staff and journalists scurrying out of the park’s headquarters.
Major earthquakes are rare in Malaysia and the tremor was one of the strongest in decades, jolting a wide area of Sabah and sending people fleeing outdoors.
But there have been no reports of major damage or other fatalities beyond the mountain.