Kundasang, Malaysia--Boulders "the size of cars" roared down the crowded slopes of Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu after its earthquake, a witness said, as authorities on Sunday raised the death toll in the disaster to 16.
Six Singapore primary school students and a teacher who were on an excursion to the peak were among those killed when the 6.0-magnitude quake struck Friday morning, sending landslides crashing downward.
Authorities said two more people remained missing on the mountain.
The earthquake hit just as the 4,095-metre-high (13,435-foot) mountain, a popular destination for hikers, was crowded with visitors seeking its sunrise views over Borneo island.
"I saw large rocks, like the size of cars... falling all around us. I also saw landslides around the summit area," said Mohammad Razif Hadzri, 30, a Malaysian university employee.
Miraculously, none in his party of seven were hurt.
"We were lucky the large stones didn't fall on us, but around us. It was quite scary," said Razif.
Local mountain guides who accompany climbers helped them find the painstaking way down through the devastated trails, a trip that took 17 hours. It normally takes three to four hours.
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam confirmed that the bodies of six students had been identified.
Another teacher and an adventure guide from Singapore also perished, while a student and a teacher remained missing, Shanmugam said.
Malaysian officials have said the students were aged 12 and 13.
"Looking at the photos of these children -- such young lives, full of promise, snuffed out," Shanmugam said in a Facebook posting.
Singapore declared Monday a day of national remembrance for the victims.
Malaysian police say the dead or missing also include several Malaysians, and one each believed to be from China, Japan and the Philippines.
But they were yet to provide a detailed breakdown, saying the poor state of some remains made identification difficult.
Body parts had been found on sections of the mountain, suggesting the awesome power of the landslides, police added.
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said some of the students were taking a route to the summit known as the Via ferrata, Italian for "iron road", that traverses a steeply sloping granite rock face.
AFP
