After a 5.9 earthquake struck Malaysia last Friday, killing 16 and trapping climbers, some are blaming a group of hikers who stripped and got naked on the mountain beforehand.
Eleanor Hawkins was arrested and is facing three months in jail after she and a group hiked Mount Kinabalu and took their clothes off in the process, reports say.
The 23-year-old was arrested, along with three others, while at the airport attempting to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur. They are accused of “committing obscene acts in a public place.”
Derby head girl Eleanor Hawkins in jail in Malaysia over naked mountain stunt http://t.co/xLCLmZcUPE pic.twitter.com/IBROpDHyLI
— Derby Telegraph (@DerbyTelegraph) June 11, 2015
The other are believed to have already left the country.
Now locals are blaming the group for “offending the mountain god.” They think the hikers disrespected the holy mountain — where they believe their ancestors reside.
malaysiakini: Four foreigners held for stripping atop Mt Kinabalu http://t.co/zjEjc9YxA9 #SabahQuake pic.twitter.com/thr14eX6Hr
— Malaysia News (@Malaysia_Latest) June 10, 2015
Sabah’s deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan also thinks the tourists are to blame.
“There is almost certainly a connection,” he said to the Malay Mail Online. “We have to take this as a reminder that local beliefs and customs are not to be disrespected.”
Locals' anger against the 'strippers on #Mt Kinabalu' was boiling hot even before the earthquake & multiplied 1000 times when it happened.
— Masidi Manjun (@MasidiM) June 11, 2015
“Whether other people believe this or not, it’s what we Sabahans believe. When the earthquake happened, it’s like a confirmation of our beliefs. It is a sacred mountain, and you cannot take it lightly.”
Hawkins’s lawyer said she is “traumatized” but “okay.”