MOROCCO: A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force.
More than 2,000 people were killed, and the toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled to reach hard-hit remote areas.
The magnitude-6.8 quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late Friday.
One man said dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet.
The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry, covering whole communities with rubble.
The devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks in similar ways: homes folding in on themselves and mothers and fathers crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.
Remote villages like those in the drought stricken Ouargane Valley were largely cut off when they lost electricity and cellphone service.
By midday, people were outside mourning neighbors, surveying the damage on their camera phones and telling one another “May God save us.”
At least 2,012 people died in the quake, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the epicenter, Morocco’s Interior Ministry reported Saturday night. At least 2,059 more people were injured — 1,404 critically — the ministry said.
“The problem is that where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.
In a sign of the huge scale of the disaster, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital, according to a statement from the military.
The king said he would visit the hardest hit area Saturday, but despite an outpouring of offers of help from around the world, the Moroccan government had not formally asked for assistance, a step required before outside rescue crews could deploy.
The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70 kilometers south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.
Police, emergency vehicles and people fleeing in shared taxis spent hours traversing unpaved roads through the High Atlas in stop-and-go traffic, often exiting their cars to help clear boulders from routes known to be rugged and difficult long before Friday’s earthquake.
In Ijjoukak, a village in the area surrounding Toubkal, North Africa’s tallest peak, residents estimated nearly 200 buildings had been leveled.
Morocco will observe three days of national mourning with flags at half-staff on all public facilities, the official news agency MAP reported.
World leaders offered to send in aid or rescue crews as condolences poured in from countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Group of 20 summit in India.
(AP/VOA)
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