SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A Singaporean hiker fractured his right arm in a fall while descending from a mountain in Malaysia on the morning of May 30.
The 52-year-old man, who was not named by the authorities, was among 11 hikers and two guides who climb up Gunung Datuk in the southern state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysian national news agency Bernama reported.
“He is believed to have fallen at a rocky area near the summit staircase while descending from the mountain and suffered a fracture to his right arm,” Kota Fire and Rescue Station chief Senior Fire Officer II Asnizam Kamberon told Bernama.
Asnizam said his department received a call about the incident at 10.29am.
A five-man rescue team was immediately dispatched to the victim’s location, about 2km from the foot of the mountain.
Rescuers brought the Singaporean down on a stretcher, and he was then handed over to medical personnel.
He was sent to a nearby hospital in an ambulance.
According to news website Free Malaysia Today, Gunung Datuk, which rises to a height of about 885m (2,900ft), has a peak defined by a cluster of massive granite boulders.
Hikers must climb a series of near-vertical steel ladders anchored directly into the rock.
Local folklore say a large depression on one of the highest boulders bears the footprint of the legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah, who was reputed to be able to leap from mountain to mountain. -- The Straits Times/Asia News Network
