Asia

Asia

13 confirmed dead, search ongoing for 6 missing on Malaysian mountain

07 June 2015 20:57 (UTC +04:00)

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.