Morocco's deadliest earthquake in decades has killed more than 1,300 people, authorities said Saturday, as troops and emergency services scrambled to reach remote mountain villages where casualties are still feared trapped. Neighbouring Algeria has opened its airspace to facilitate rescue flights.
The 6.8-magnitude quake struck late Friday in a mountainous area 72 kilometres southwest of tourist hotspot Marrakesh, the US Geological Survey reported.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry said Saturday morning that at least 1,300 people had died, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the quake's epicenter. More than 1,800 people were injured. Casualty figures were expected to rise more as the search continues and as rescuers reach remote areas.
In the mountain village of Moulay Brahim near the quake's epicentre, rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble of collapsed houses while residents began digging graves for the dead on a nearby hill, AFP correspondents reported.
The army set up a field hospital in the village and deployed "significant human and logistical resources" to support the rescue operation, state news agency MAP reported.
It was the strongest-ever quake to hit the North African kingdom, and one expert described it as the region's "biggest in more than 120 years".
We stand by the people of Morocco at this difficult time following the deadly earthquake.
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) September 9, 2023
Our Emergency Response Coordination Centre is closely monitoring the situation, ready to provide assistance if requested.
Our thoughts are with all those affected.@JanezLenarcic @eu_echo https://t.co/iFTZIyyyQo
Meanwhile, Algeria has announced that it will allow aircraft carrying humanitarian aid to Morocco to pass through its airspace, suspending a two-year ban on flights to its regional rival.
Algerian authorities "have decided to open the airspace to flights transporting humanitarian aid and injured" from the quake, the president's office said in a statement.
Several seconds
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. local time with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude-4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.
The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70 kilometers south of Marrakech.
The USGS said the epicenter was 18 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, while Morocco’s seismic agency put it at 11 kilometers down. Such shallow quakes are more dangerous.
Initial reports suggest damages and deaths were severe throughout the Marrakech-Safi region, which is made up of a mixture of cities, small towns and open land and 4,520,569 call home, according to state figures.
Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the mountain region.
In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths.
The Agadir quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.
In 2004, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.
Friday's quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria's Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.
(With newswires)
