By Jonathan Kent BBC, Kuala Lumpur

Thousands of people in Malaysian Borneo are returning home after being prompted to flee by false reports of a tsunami.

Police in the state of Sabah say the rumours may have been spread by thieves hoping to loot deserted villages.

Borneo may lie thousands of miles from the Indian Ocean shores devastated by last month's tsunami, but local people evidently feel no safer knowing that.

Rumours circulated that an island in the southern-most Philippines had been inundated.

More than 10,000 people fled their homes around the town of Semporna, on the east coast of Sabah, while hundreds more left an area around Lahad Datu to the north and made for higher ground.

Police had literally to coax thousands of the refugees down from the hills with assurances that it was safe to return.

After 36 hours, some have still not gone home. The district police chief told the BBC that he was investigating the source of the rumours.

He said he thought they may have been started by criminals hoping to rob empty homes.

The report spread so fast that Semporna, one of Malaysia's most remote towns, suffered a rare traffic jam, something that only normally happens during the annual boat festival.

Some, however, were not so readily taken in by the panic.

One local district chieftain said his response to the rumours was to look at his cats and chickens.

They appeared not to be bothered, so neither was he.