Kuala Lumpur: The toll raised to sixteen in the Mountain Quake, that shook the Malaysia on Friday. According to officials, sixteen people died after the boulders rolled down the slopes of Mount Kinabalu due to the earthquake, measuring 6.0 on Richter scale. Nearly six school students of Singapore and a teacher, who were on an excursion were killed in the disaster. Two more people are still missing on the mountain, which is 13,435 foot and a popular destination for the hikers.
K. Shanmugam, Singapore Foreign Minister, confirmed that the bodies of the students, who died, had been identified. According to police, there are many malaysians in the dead and missing and one each believed to be from China, Japan and the Philippines. Singapore declared Monday as a day of national remembrance for the victims.
On Saturday, rescuers had helped 137 hikers to safety zone as they were struck on the mountain for nearly 18 hours due to the quake. Several aftershocks on Saturday jolted the region and sent shivers among the people. The quake was one of the powerful ones in decades in Malaysia. However, no reports of damage or casualty were registered outside the mountain region.
