GEORGE TOWN, Nov 7 — The Fire and Rescue Department has deployed a helicopter from Subang to rescue 36 people stranded on Penang Hill.
Northeast District police chief Assistant Commissioner Anuar Omar confirmed the helicopter arrived at the hill around 2pm today.
“This is a group of people who went up for a prayer ceremony at a temple on the hill on Saturday,” he said.
He said the 36 people, including children and senior citizens, were staying at Bellevue Hotel on the hill.
“They have food and a place to stay. But it has been three days so they wanted to go home,” he said.
He added that this morning, the rescue team that hiked up the hill found the paths covered by mud and debris due to a landslide from the weekend storm.
“It is not safe to bring them down on land, so we had to use the helicopter to airlift them from the top of the hill,” he said.
A massive storm hit the whole of Penang over the weekend, affecting thousands of people and causing destruction in its wake.
Flood waters have receded in most parts of the state.
