The British backpacker
arrested in Malaysia for stripping naked on top of a mountain and causing a
deadly earthquake has been named as Eleanor Hawkins.
The former public
school head girl is among five Western tourists accused of 'upsetting the gods'
by posing nude on the country's highest peak days before an earthquake killed
18 climbers on the mountain. Eleanor, 24, from
Derby, was detained at a Sabah airport yesterday while trying to fly to Kuala
Lumpur.
The aerospace
engineering student is said to be 'very upset' as she sits in a police cell in
Borneo facing obscenity charges, which can carry a three-month prison sentence ,with her are Canadian Lindsey Petersen, 22, and his sister, Danielle, 23, and a
23-year-old Dutch man, Dylan Snel, who surrendered themselves at a police
station in Sabah yesterday evening.
Another Canadian, named
as Emil Kaminski, 33, who is understood to be the group's tour guide, was
arrested today. Police obtained a court
order to detain them for four days while they're investigated for indecent
behaviour. The duo's father, Floyd
Petersen, told the National Post he was totally unaware about the alleged
incident as they had made no mention of it to him.
He said his son and
daughter had called periodically while on the trip but never mentioned doing
any sort of stunt while admitting it is not something children were likely to
tell their parents.
They were believed to
be part of a group of 10 people who stripped naked before taking photos at
Mount Kinabalu on May 30.
The men were completely
nude, while most, if not all of the women were topless in the photos, which
were circulated on social media.
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake on Friday sent rocks and boulders raining down the trekking routes on the 4,095m (13,453ft) mountain in Sabah on Borneo island, killing 18 climbers.
The victims were nine
Singaporeans, six Malaysians and a Filipino, a Chinese and a Japanese
national.
Sabah Deputy Chief
Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan has blamed the tragedy on the foreigners for
showing 'disrespect to the sacred mountain' by posing naked at the peak.
He has said a special
ritual will be conducted to 'appease the mountain spirit.'
Mount Kinabalu, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular climbing destination, is considered
sacred by Malaysia's Kadazan Dusun tribal group, who believe it is a resting
place for spirits.
The quake damaged roads
and buildings, including schools and a hospital on Sabah's west coast.
It also broke one of
the twin rock formations on the mountain known as the 'Donkey's Ears.'
Six other tourists are
still apparently at large, according to police.
'We detained all four
of them on Tuesday... and yes we are still searching for the other six
tourists, and we will catch them,' said Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman, the police
commissioner for the Malaysian State of Sabah where the mountain is located. Jalaluddin said those
detained might be charged for causing public nuisance. (Source Daily mail).