Naked tourists blamed for earthquake
Western tourists who stripped naked on Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu a week before it was struck by a devastating earthquake face the prospect of fines after locals blamed them for the tremor that killed 16 people.
According to the Independent newspaper, a police report appears to have been filed against five of the 10 tourists and the deputy chief minister of Sabah state where the mountain is located has said he believes they caused the 6.0 magnitude earthquake at the weekend.
Kinabalu is considered a sacred mountain by the indigenous community in Sabah on the island of Borneo and they say the tourists’ actions angered its spirit.
The 10 foreigners, including two Canadians, two Dutch and a German, allegedly broke away from a larger group of tourists to take photographs of themselves standing naked on the mountain. The images were later posted on social media.
A local tribal priest, known as Bobolian, is demanding the tourists pay for 10 head of buffalo to be sacrificed to the mountain spirits, according to the Straits Times.
So far, 16 people are known to have been killed by the earthquake on the mountain and at least two others are still missing.
Tour company Amazing Borneo has confirmed it lost two mountain guides in the earthquake, Joseph Selungin and also Robbi Sapinggi, who had previously worked for Intrepid Travel.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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