KOTA KINABALU, June 5 — One by one and with darkness sweeping in fast, the climbers are coming in to the safe zone at the base of Sabah’s popular Mount Kinabalu in the wake of a 6.0-magnitude quake that hit the north Borneo state just after dawn today.
Looking visibly fatigued, 11 climbers, including eight tourists, made it back to the mountain base with various injuries, bringing the total of returnees to 63 as at 6.30pm.
This leaves another 126 climbers to the mercy of the elements as night falls.
Two climbers were carried back on stretchers hoisted by local mountain guides and porters.
An unidentified Singaporean male was heavily injured, and was carried back to the base at about 5.20pm assisted by six mountain guides.
First aid responders strapped a neck brace on the climber upon arrival, and he was transferred to the Ranau district hospital for medical treatment.
The identities of the latest batch of climbers were not immediately known as they were not wearing their identity tags, but they are believed to be Singaporean high school students.
While helicopters continue to circle the summit to rescue some 105 climbers stranded at the summit, another 10 are believed to have succumbed to hypothermia and are unconscious.
It is believed that 11 more are on the way back by foot.
It is also believed that the helicopters managed to drop blankets to those stranded on the summit.
Elsa Andrew, a 22-year-old Sabahan, said she was asleep during the earthquake and woke up to realise that cracks had emerged on the mountain.
She started descending from the Gunting Lagadan base at Km6 at 12.37pm with the assistance of two rescue guides, and reached the base at 6.10pm.
“We had to be very careful and go slow as there were cracks and rocks in the way,” she said.
