On Monday, September 11, Moroccan rescuers, with the assistance of international teams, found themselves in a rapidly intensifying race against the clock to extricate any survivors trapped under the debris of mountain villages following the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country’s history.
Moroccan rescuers supported by foreign teams on Monday faced an intensifying race against time to dig out any survivors from the rubble of mountain villages after the country’s strongest-ever earthquake.
The 6.8-magnitude quake struck the Atlas mountains late Friday southwest of the tourist center of Marrakesh. It killed at least 2,681 people and injured over 2,500 others, according to the latest official toll.
In the disaster-stricken community of Talat Nyacoub, 12 ambulances and several dozen 4X4s from the army and police were deployed while around 100 Moroccan rescuers were searching for signs of life amid the collapsed buildings.
Nearby, press agencies saw a Spanish team of 30 firefighters, a doctor, nurse and two technicians coordinating with Moroccan authorities before starting to dig, as a helicopter flew overhead.
Journalists in Amizmiz saw Moroccan troops handing out hundreds of blankets to residents who had lost their homes.
The rescuers are assisted by four dogs and micro-cameras that can be fed into the rubble in an effort to detect signs of life.
Rabat on Sunday announced it had accepted offers to send search and rescue teams from Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Spain.
The earthquake wiped out entire villages in the foothills of the Atlas mountains, where civilian rescuers and members of Morocco’s armed forces have searched for survivors and the bodies of the dead.
Other volunteers organized food and essential goods to help quake victims, after complaints that authorities were slow to respond.
The education ministry announced that school classes were “suspended” in the worst-hit villages of Al-Haouz province, the quake epicenter.
Some parts of Marrakesh’s historic medina and its network of alleyways saw significant damage, with mounds of rubble and crumpled buildings in the World Heritage site.
Dozens of people continued to sleep outdoors overnight in the modern quarter of Marrakesh.
The quake was the deadliest in Morocco since a 1960 earthquake destroyed Agadir, killing 12,000-15,000 people.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
