German tourist’s body being flown home

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Staff of KK Tionghua Funeral Parlour making final arrangements on Poulsen’s body before it was taken to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: Arrangements were made yesterday to bring home the body of German tourist Victoria Poulsen who fell to her death on Mount Kinabalu.

It was learnt that officials from the German Embassy arrived here around noon to make the necessary arrangements such as obtaining the death certificate and transporting the 22-year-old’s body back.

Poulsen, who came with her boyfriend, plunged 30 metres down a steep granite slope from the 4,095m point of Mount Kinabalu’s Low’s Peak about 6am on Monday.

It is believed that she died instantly after suffering severe injuries on the back, neck and leg.

At the request of the embassy’s officials, Poulsen’s body was taken to the KK Tionghua Funeral Parlour in Kolombong around 12.20pm for preparation before taking her to the Kota Kinabalu International Airport around 4.40pm to catch the 7pm flight to Kuala Lumpur.

From there, her body will be flown home to Germany.

Poulsen, an exchange student at Xiamen University, China, and her boyfriend had joined three other French nationals to climb the mountain.

It is believed that she had stepped beyond a rope fence and onto an area of loose rocks on the summit to get the best sunrise photo. It was learnt that she had stepped on loose rocks.

Twenty-seven Sabah Park rangers rushed up to the summit and arrived at the scene at 8am, and it took them three hours to pull up Poulsen’s body from the place where she had fallen down.

They then made the trek back to the Timpohon Gate at the mountain base, arriving at 5.05pm before taking her to the Ranau District Hospital.