News Digest

Rescue operations continue as Malaysian quake toll hits 13 dead, 6 missing

A strong earthquake that jolted Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia has left 13 people dead and another six missing on Southeast Asia’s highest peak, an official said Saturday The 6.0-magnitude quake struck early Friday near the picturesque mountain, a popular tourist destination, sending landslides and huge granite boulders tumbling down from its wide, 4,095-metre-high crown. Malaysian media reports have said the dead included members of a Singapore primary school group on an excursion to the mountain, including a 12-year-old girl who was killed, as well as a local climbing guide.

There are 13 (dead) bodies. Two yesterday and 11 today. We’ve got six people still missing. I cannot confirm with you where they are from.

Mohammad Farhan Lee Abdullah, police chief of the town of Ranau near the mountain

Rescuers earlier on Saturday finished escorting down to safety 137 hikers who were stuck on the mountain for up to 18 hours, after the quake damaged a key trail and threatened them with continuing rockfalls. Masidi Manjun, Sabah State’s tourism minister, tweeted that the quake also broke one of the twin rock formations on the mountain known as the “Donkey’s Ears”. Manjun added that authorities were not yet ready to release the identities of the dead and missing. About 60 rescuers and four helicopters were continuing to comb the mountain on Saturday, officials said. The earthquake also damaged roads and buildings, including schools and a hospital on Sabah’s west coast.