For Shame! Malaysia Official Blasts Naked Foreign Tourists for Deadly Quake

The earthquake, which hit Malaysia’s highest peak, Mount Kinabalu, in the state of Sabah earlier this week and has taken the lives of at least 19 climbers, was caused by Western tourists stripping naked near the mountain's summit last month, Sabah's Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan was quoted by media outlets as saying.

He added that the earthquake was a "confirmation" of the consequences of the misbehavior of 10 Europeans who he said will be banned from leaving Malaysia and will be brought to a local court to face charges.

"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," he said.

The remarks came more than a week after a picture of the 10 tourists, including four women, undressing near the south peak of Mount Kinabalu, emerged on social networking sites. This infuriated the Sabahans, who consider the mountain sacred and believe that the tourists' behavior made the "mountain spirits mad".

According to Sabah Parks director Datuk Jamili Nais, the four women and six men allegedly split from their group and went to the south peak, defying their mountain guide's warnings and calling him "stupid".

They told him to "go to hell" when he asked them to stop taking off all their clothes and posing for pictures.

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake, which rocked Sabah's west coast on Friday, caused massive landslides on Mount Kinabalu, killing at least nineteen climbers.