This is the photo that went viral on social media after Mount Kinabalu was hit by a 6.0-magnitude earthquake last Friday morning:

The hero in it is 25-year-old local guide Mhd Rizuan Kauhinin (he's slightly over 1.5m tall, by the way), carrying an injured Singaporean boy down from the mountains.

The camera-shy Rizuan said he and another mountain guide found the boy writhing in pain near the Villosa Shelter at KM 4.9 of the trail.

Speaking to The Star, a Malaysian publication, after his reluctance to do so initially, the guide said: "I'm not a famous person. What I did was out of sincerity, not to get fame. I wanted to genuinely help. All that mattered was to bring the boy to safety."

"Since he is Singaporean, he knows how to speak Bahasa Malaysia. He told me not to move fast because the impact was hurting him. Normally, it would take me only two hours to travel between the two points. But I took my time bringing him down.

"The boy kept saying he was in pain, and he couldn't stand it. We had to stop many times, but I tried my best to quickly bring him to the Layang-Layang Hut.

"At the Layang-Layang Hut, we transferred the boy onto a stretcher."

After they reached Timpohon Gate at the mountain base, the boy was taken away in an ambulance.

According to another report from The Star, the Dusun, who lives in a kampung located at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, said that he "did not know what to feel" about being called a hero for rescuing the quake victim.

It was in that same interview that the local newspaper did with him that he was first shown the now-iconic photograph of him, as well as a picture of a painting by artist Razie Alfidan (featuring the same image), which will be sold for charity.

These were his reactions:

"If there's a chance, I'd like to meet the boy again because I can't bear to see him like this in the picture."

"Actually, I can't remember how he looks like because there was blood on his face."

In all honesty, he seemed puzzled by the attention he was getting, insisting he and the other guides who returned to help rescue injured climbers were merely doing their duty.

"As soon as they (customers) enter the park, we take them under our care."

There's a painful twist to this story, though — the guide, who with others has pounded the sacred mountain for the past half-decade, has lost his job due to the temporary closure of the park.

"Us guides have never been separated from Mount Kinabalu."

"But now we've lost our livelihood. And we're currently thinking of what to do next."

You can watch his video interview here:

" width="760" height="428" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">

Tour agency Amazing Borneo is also raising funds in support of Rizwan and his colleagues, whom you can donate to here:

Selfless acts by mountain guides & S’pore teacher make them real heroes in Sabah earthquake aftermath

Top photo: Video screen grab

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.