Malaysian authorities are arranging
for helicopters to transport 11 bodies that were recovered after an
earthquake struck near Mount Kinabalu, while nine people from a school
in Singapore remain missing.
Mount Kinabalu appears through the clouds over Kota Kinabalu, capital of the east Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island, in this file photo of Reuters
The police forensic team has arrived to
assist and two of the bodies have been identified, Sabah’s Minister of
Tourism, Culture and Environment Masidi Manjun wrote on Twitter. As of
noon local time, eight people are still missing, Masidi wrote.
Search-and-rescue operations for
climbers on Southeast Asia’s highest peak are under way after an
earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 hit Ranau district in the eastern
state of Sabah on Borneo island Friday. Tremors were felt in Tambunan,
Pedalaman, Tuaran and Kota Belud, according to a statement from the
Malaysian Meteorological Department.
The temblor occurred around 7:15 a.m.
local time, when climbers tend to descend after reaching the summit in
the early hours of the morning, said the Malaysian Meteorological
Department. In recent years, Sabah state has experienced minor
earthquakes, it said.
Twenty-nine students and eight teachers
from Tanjong Katong Primary School were on a fieldtrip to Kota Kinabalu,
according to an e-mailed statement from Singapore’s Ministry of
Education. Of these, seven students and two teachers remain missing as
of 12:20 p.m. local time, the ministry said.
In addition, 58 students and eight
teachers from Greenridge Secondary School and Fuchun Secondary School
returned to Singapore at 12:20 a.m. on June 6, according to a separate
statement from the ministry. Singapore has sent a team of counsellors,
as well as officials from the police, Singapore Civil Defence Force and
Ministry of Transport, 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 the post mortem, The Star reported Saturday, citing
Farhan Lee Abdullah, Ranau district’s police chief.
Source: Bloomberg