In Marrakech, the streets of the historic Jewish quarter of the medina are littered with debris and old buildings have collapsed. The city woke up in shock after the earthquake which struck Morocco during the night from Friday to Saturday, killing more than 1,000 people.
“It’s as if we had been hit by a bomb,” a resident of Mellah, Hafida Sahraouia, described with dismay to AFP.
“We were making dinner when we heard something like an explosion. Panicked, I quickly went out with my children. Our house unfortunately collapsed,” says this 50-year-old woman who took refuge with her family. on a large square at the entrance to his neighborhood.
“We don’t know where to turn. We lost everything,” she confides.
Mbarka El Ghabar, a neighbor, also saw her house “destroyed” by the tremors.
“We were sleeping when the earthquake hit, part of the roof collapsed, we found ourselves trapped inside but we managed to escape, my husband and I”, she testifies, adding to have “had a nightmare night”.
– “Die alone”?
If Mbarka and Hafida were lucky not to lose any member of their family, Fatiha Aboualchouak lost a four-year-old nephew.
This thirty-year-old, who walks with a limp, looking haggard, “does not have the strength to speak”, she says in a frail voice.
It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the kingdom to date.
The National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), based in Rabat, indicated that the earthquake had a magnitude of 7 degrees on the Richter scale and that its epicenter was in the province of Al -Haouz, southwest of Marrakech, a popular destination for foreign tourists.
In the ocher city, which has 13 dead according to a provisional report, hundreds of tourists and residents of surrounding neighborhoods have taken refuge in the famous Jemaa el-Fna square.
Many of them slept on the floor, sometimes without blankets.
Others couldn’t sleep a wink, like Ghannou Najem, an octogenarian who arrived in Marrakech from Casablanca, just a few hours before the earthquake.
“I came to visit the city with my daughter and my granddaughter. In the evening, they both went out and I stayed at the hotel. I was getting ready to sleep when I heard the doors and “The shutters slammed. I went out in a panic, I thought I was going to die alone,” she says.
A short distance away, Rabab Raïss, wrapped in a duvet, speaks of the earthquake as “the most traumatic experience of her life”.
“I saw people running everywhere, there was a lot of dust because of the collapses. I was terrified,” says this 26-year-old young woman who lives in Marrakech.
“It’s a painful ordeal, my heart goes out to the families of the victims,” she adds.
Mohamed, a resident of the medina, considers himself lucky that “death” has “spared” him, given the “very poor infrastructure” of the neighborhood. “We lost a neighbor and a young girl died there and her brother was injured in the leg,” he says.
In addition to Marrakech, the violent tremor was felt in Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira, also sowing panic among the population.
Many people have taken to the streets of these cities, fearing the collapse of their homes, according to images posted on social networks.
09/09/2023 16:23:21 – Marrakesh (Morocco) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP