Student arrested for stripping naked on sacred mountain which locals say caused earthquake killing 18

British student Eleanor Hawkins, 24, and her co-accused could be jailed for three months for stripping off on Mount Kinabalu which lies in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo in Malaysia.

In the photos posted online, the pictured men were nude and some of the women were topless.

By stripping Malaysians believe that the tourists disrespected the sacred mountain which infuriated the spirits and caused an earthquake that killed 18 people.

The earthquake struck on June 5,  six days after the nude prank, sending boulders down from the peak.

According to the Mirror a group of 10 trekkers stripped and took photos of themselves on Mount Kinabalu and it's alleged that they urinated at the sacred site as well.

Eleanor is one of five Western tourists who have been arrested since the stripping incident

Eleanor was arrested on Tuesday at a Borneo airport as she tried to fly to Kuala Lumpur.

On the same day 23-year-old Canadian Lindsey Peterson, his sister Danielle, 22, and a 23-year-old Dutch man, Dylan Snel handed themselves in to authorities, while 33-year-old Emil Kaminski was arrested on Wednesday.

Eleanor’s lawyer Ronny Cham said the tourists face charges of committing obscene acts in a public place which carries a maximum sentence of three months in jail and a fine.

"The tourists who angered the guardian of the mountain should pay for their mistakes by giving sogit. This fine, called sogit in the native tongue, should be in the form of 10 male or female buffaloes," said Sabah’s chief tribal priest, Tindarama Aman Sirom Simbuna.

Eleanor father, Mr Hawkins, hopes that his daughter is not used as an example and said, " I don’t know why she did it, but when you’re young these things happen.”

SOURCES: www.mirror.co.uk, www.telegraph.co.uk