At least 2,012 people died in a powerful earthquake that struck Morocco overnight from Friday to Saturday, causing enormous damage and sowing panic in Marrakech, a tourist hotspot, and several other cities, according to a new official report. published Saturday evening.
The kingdom has declared a three-day national mourning, announced the royal cabinet, following a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI on this earthquake, the most powerful to hit the country to date.
The International Red Cross alerted the international community to the importance of aid for Morocco, citing needs for “months or even years”.
The village of Tafeghaghte, 60 km southwest of Marrakech, was almost completely decimated by the earthquake, the epicenter of which was only around fifty kilometers away, according to an AFP team.
Few of the buildings are still standing, while elements of the army continued the search for bodies buried under the rubble.
Many people went to the cemetery to bury some 70 remains. The funeral rites were punctuated by screams and tears.
“Three of my grandchildren (12, 8 and 4 years old) and their mother are dead, they are still under the debris, not so long ago we were playing together,” laments AFP Omar Benhanna, 72 years old.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 11:11 p.m. local time (10:11 p.m. GMT), according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS).
The Moroccan Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST) measured the magnitude of the earthquake at 7, specifying that the epicenter of the tremor was located in the province of Al-Haouz, southwest of the city of Marrakech, very popular with international tourists.
The earthquake left 2,012 dead and 2,059 injured, 1,404 of whom are in serious condition, the Interior Ministry said in its latest provisional report published on Saturday evening.
In the evening, television channels broadcast aerial images showing entire villages with clay houses in the Al-Haouz region completely destroyed.
More than half of the deaths were recorded in Al-Haouz (1,293) and Taroudant (452), further south, two mountainous rural areas in the heart of the High Atlas, according to the ministry. “Public authorities are still mobilized to speed up rescue and evacuation operations for the injured,” he added.
In the mountainous village of Moulay Brahim, in the province of Al-Haouz, rescuers were looking for survivors among the rubble of collapsed houses.
Not far from there, residents were already digging graves on a hill to bury the victims, according to an AFP team on site.
The Moroccan army has deployed “significant human and logistical resources, air and land”, as well as search and rescue teams and a field hospital in the Al-Haouz region, the news agency reported. Moroccan MAP.
In Marrakech, Moroccans on Saturday inspected, looking dazed, the damage to their homes amid piles of rubble, dust and cars crushed by stones.
“I was thrown from my bed and couldn’t get up immediately because the shaking was so strong. I thought it was a plane crash,” confides Bernard Curi, owner of a hotel located in south of Marrakesh.
In addition to Marrakech, the tremor was felt in Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira, causing panic among the population.
Many people took to the streets of these cities, fearing the collapse of their homes.
The regional blood transfusion center in Marrakech called on residents to come to its premises on Saturday to donate blood for the injured.
The tragedy sparked a surge of solidarity around the world, with several countries, including Israel, France, Spain, Italy and the United States offering their help.
Even neighboring Algeria, with stormy relations with Morocco, has announced that it has decided to open its airspace, closed since September 2021, to flights carrying humanitarian aid and the wounded.
The Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) has announced the indefinite postponement of the match against Liberia initially scheduled for Saturday in Agadir, as part of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) qualifiers.
On February 24, 2004, an earthquake measuring 6.4 degrees on the Richter scale shook the province of Al Hoceima, 400 km northeast of Rabat, killing 628 people.
And on February 29, 1960, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake destroyed Agadir, on the west coast of the country, and killed nearly 15,000 people, or a third of the city’s population.
09/10/2023 00:35:06 – Tafeghaghte (Morocco) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
