Fury among Muslims after backpackers strip naked on beach

Backpacker strip down in Malaysia. (Facebook via News.com.au)

A man has been arrested and the search is on for 12 others after pictures emerged of a tourist group posing naked on remote beach.

Malaysia’s Bernama.com is reporting authorities are investigating the spread of the nude photos on Facebook, allegedly taken on an island near Semporna in Borneo.

“We don’t know how many people posed naked. Authorities have identified a Chinese tourist who may have taken them there,” Sabah Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Masidi Manjun said.

“The tourists involved have left Sabah.”

He also warned tour operators to inform police if they see visitors committing lewd acts that violate local customs.

Local police have confirmed that they have detained a Chinese man in relation to the photos and cannot say when the pictures were taken or their exact location.

The group could face up to 90 days in jail if located and charged.

It is the same area where a group of tourists were arrested in May for posing nude on top of the country’s highest mountain which locals said ‘offended the gods’ and triggered an earthquake, killing 18 people.

A Facebook user who saw these new photos wrote “If a tsunami comes, then we will know who to blame.”