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MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES ARE racing to try to reach 137 people, some of them injured, who were stranded atop the popular climbing peak of Mount Kinabalu after a strong earthquake triggered dangerous rockfalls.
The 6.0-magnitude quake struck near the mountain around 7:15 am Friday local time, jolting a wide area of the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.
No deaths or major damage had been reported as of late Friday afternoon.
But Sabah state tourism minister Masidi Manjun told AFP the quake had triggered landslides and sent huge boulders tumbling down the 4,095-metre mountain’s wide granite crown.
Masidi said 137 people were “slowly and cautiously” working their way down the mountain, as an 85-member rescue team was climbing up to reach them.
The climbers, believed to include foreigners, had been stuck on the picturesque summit, slowed by lingering danger from rockfalls and damage to a key trail.
“Its very tricky now. We can’t land a helicopter up there because visibility is so bad, but the people can’t come down on their own because the main route is now impassable,” Masidi said.
State officials were quoted earlier by the New Straits Times saying at least four climbers had suffered injuries including broken bones and head wounds due to falling rocks.
The force of the tremor was so strong that it snapped off one of the two large “Donkey’s Ear” rock outcroppings that form a distinctive part of the peak’s craggy profile, Masidi said.
He said authorities were now focused on trying to get supplies including food, water and warm clothing to the stranded climbers in anticipation of a possibly wet and chilly night.
Kinabalu’s broad but steeply undulating moonscape-like summit is frequently lashed with heavy rain, and night temperatures can dip below freezing despite the tropical latitude.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, its epicentre located about 54 kilometres (34 miles) east of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. No tsunami warning was issued and there were no initial reports of major damage.
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Can I have my money back now
It’s like’…..burning your furniture – to keep warm!
Why are PwC saying this instead of IBRC and NAMA?
As property prices start to rise nama , ibrc start to dump property
Can someone explain why?
Dumping loans philip, not property. They’re Dumping the loans as they’re non-performing and want to get them off the balance sheet.
If they had the patience, they’d put arrangements in place to allow the properties to return to positive equity and then seek a sale, this recouping more of the tax payers money.
Unfortunately, they’ll sell the loans for a discount and allow the new purchasers to do this and net a tidy profit.
The article outlines that IBRC (IBROKE would probably be a better name) will offload € 15 billion in loans.
Yet the linked article tells us that IBROKE have already offloaded 90% of its loanbook, € 19.8 billion out of € 21.7 billion leaving just € 1.9 billion on hand.
This can only mean, if the previous article is correct, that it is NAMA that is offloading the majority of the loans.
Why the subterfuge?
Why make people think that this is some kind of joint enterprise when it is NAMA that is leading the charge?
Have the shiny suit brigade from the canal something to hide?
Given their obsession with secrecy it would not surprise me if they have, perhaps selling the loans to some preferred customer with an inside track at a serious discount.
The way things go it will all be wrapped up before we know anything, plus ça change.
Who in their right mind would buy this junk?
It might only be worth 30% of face value but if you buy it for 20% it’s a good deal. For the buyer anyway.
@ Irish Revolution
The Banks?
Hedge funds bought it. They will now sell off all the ghost estates etc at a lower price so people that have houses for sale at the min will eventually have to sell for half or take them off the market.
Fab house here in drogheda asking price €325. Hilarious. You could now nearly get a house for that on raglan road or ailsbury road!! So that house is realistically worth less than €150 really.
People and notions ha
What about Bank of Scotland selling on my mortgage & others in their Irish portfolio to a company called Tanager Ltd.
I’m in a tizzy all day because I don’t know what it means for us.
have your say