Story highlights
13 are dead after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake strikes in Malaysia
11 bodies are found on Mount Kinabalu; 6 people still aren't accounted for
Primary school students from Singapore are among the dead and survivors
They had gone to Kinabalu, one of Southeast Asia’s tallest peaks, for adventure. They left with heartbreak – knowing some of their classmates and teachers weren’t coming home with them.
That was the harsh reality for 19 students and two teachers from a Singapore primary school who’d been among those caught up in Friday’s magnitude-6.0 quake and the perilous rock slide it caused.
“The students (are) shaken but are safe,” Singapore’s Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat said after a “very emotional” airport meeting Saturday with the surviving students and teachers. “The teachers are also affected, but stayed resilient.”
As of early Saturday evening in Malaysia, the death toll from the quake and its aftermath stood at 13 – 11 bodies were found earlier in the day on Mount Kinabalu – with six people there still unaccounted for, according to the director of northern Malaysia’s Sabah Parks conservation area.
The tremor triggered crushing rockslides and knocked over boulders that killed those hiking on Kinabalu’s trails, explained the park director, Jamili Nais.
Despite the treacherous conditions, authorities haven’t given up hope of finding hikers stranded, perhaps hurt, but alive.
Aided by clearing weather, helicopters flew overhead while more than 400 rescue workers scoured the ground to look for the missing, help the injured and clear paths on the mountain.
Even as these efforts continue, the mourning has begun. In fact, Malaysian tourism minister Masidi Manjun tweeted that Monday will be a “day of mourning” in Sabah while Sunday’s national Kaamatan celebration – a harvest festival – in Ranau has been canceled “as (a) mark of respect to those who perished.”
The process of taking the dead off the mountain is ongoing as well. Nine bodies were flown by helicopter from Kinabalu on Saturday, according to Manjun.
Malaysia’s fire and rescue department, known as BOMBA, tweeted pictures of this grim effort, as well of steps taken to help those injured and stuck on the mountain.
Authorities haven’t named all those killed, but two of them were Robbi Sappingi, a 30-year-old mountain guide attached to Amazing Borneo Tours, and Rachael Ho Yann Shiuan, a 12-year-old Singaporean student.
Many made it out alive – including 167 climbers helped to safety by mountain guides, according to BOMBA.
Mountain guides ‘heroes’
Nurul Hani Ideris, 29, was on the mountain peak with a group of climbers and tour guides when the quake struck, blocking off trails and stranding them.
“All the paths vanished,” she told CNN.
Shivering in near-freezing temperatures, they waited all day for a helicopter rescue that never came. But then a team of an additional 75 guides from the park arrived, she said.
They managed to reach safety after a grueling 10-hour hike through debris that lasted into the middle of the night, sharing what little food and water they had and passing by what appeared to be dead bodies.
A helicopter spotted them and threw two boxes of supplies, but the boxes fell off a gorge.
“We were exhausted, starving at the same time … it was very difficult,” she said.
Still, the mountain guides “seemed to know every single part of the place,” and managed to carve a route through the devastated landscape, cutting branches and tying ropes to create a new path.
It was nearly 2 a.m. Saturday when they reached Kundasang, a town near the mountain’s southern base.
Only as they neared the base did they see the fire brigade and later the army.
“No one came to save us,” she said. If it hadn’t been for the mountain guides, “We would be freezing to death.”
Lynn Siang, a tour agency spokeswoman, echoed that sentiment, characterizing the mountain guides as “heroes.”
“The main rescue work was done by the mountain guides,” she told CNN. “On the path that was blocked by fallen rocks, the mountain guides had to tie a rope. When climbers crossed the ropes, they had to step on the shoulders of the guides – the guides used their body as a cushion.
“They really have sacrificed a lot,” Siang added, before evoking the name of the guide who didn’t make it. “Robbi – he sacrificed a lot.”
The UNESCO-listed Mount Kinabalu National Park – including the namesake peak, which rises to 4,095 meters (13,435 feet) above sea level – is a geographic jewel and tourist stomping grounds in Malaysian Borneo. It’s so popular that visitors have to book two to three months in advance to secure one of 196 daily allocated hiking permits.
CNN’s Brian Walker, Laura Smith-Spark and Kevin Wang contributed to this report.