Malaysian Man Saves 100 From Sinkhole

A man in eastern Malaysia saved about 100 people from being swallowed by a sinkhole when he felt the earth move while walking to an open-air toilet in the dark, a news report said Saturday.

Renjis Empati immediately ran back to the village where he screamed to alert the others living in a traditional indigenous ''longhouse'' in Sarawak state on Borneo island, the New Straits Times said.

''I could feel the earth trembling, and I saw the longhouse collapse into the sinkhole,'' the paper quoted Renjis as saying.

The incident happened just after midnight Friday, the paper said.

''If not for him, most of us would be dead by now,'' villager Lada Rentap said, according to the Times. Several said they lost all their possessions, including ancestral items passed down to them.

A number of indigenous tribes in Sarawak state live in ''longhouses,'' where an entire community lives under a single structure.

Officials in Sri Aman, Sarawak could not be immediately reached for comment.