Moroccans on Sunday mourned the victims of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people, as rescue teams raced to find survivors trapped in the rubble of flattened villages.
The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit the country’s Atlas Mountains region late on Friday has risen to 2,122.
Law enforcement and aid workers — Moroccan and international — continued arriving Monday in the region south of the city of Marrakech that was hardest hit by the magnitude-6.8 tremor on Friday night, and several aftershocks.
Thousands of residents were waiting for food, water and electricity, with giant boulders blocking steep mountain roads.
The majority of the deaths, at least 2,122 as of Sunday, were in Marrakech and five provinces near the epicenter, the Interior Ministry reported. Search and rescue and debris removal teams were out with dogs searching for survivors and bodies.
The Friday temblor toppled buildings that couldn’t withstand the shaking, trapping people in rubble and sending others fleeing in terror. The area was shaken again Sunday by a magnitude 3.9 aftershock, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There was little time for mourning as survivors tried to salvage whatever they could from damaged homes.
The Friday temblor toppled buildings that couldn’t withstand the shaking, trapping people in rubble and sending others fleeing in terror. The area was shaken again Sunday by a magnitude 3.9 aftershock, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There was little time for mourning as survivors tried to salvage whatever they could from damaged homes.
READ ALSO: Ronaldo’s Marrakesh Hotel Not Sheltering Morocco Earthquake Victims – Management
Authorities have declared three days of national mourning, with many left homeless following the country’s deadliest earthquake in more than 60 years.
However, the Red Cross warned that it could take years to repair the damage.
“It won’t be a matter of a week or two… We are counting on a response that will take months, if not years,” Hossam Elsharkawi, the organisation’s Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement.
The village of Tafeghaghte, 60 kilometres southwest of Marrakesh, was almost entirely destroyed by the quake, the epicentre of which was only about 50 kilometres away, an AFP team reported, with very few buildings still standing.
“Three of my grandchildren and their mother are dead,” said 72-year-old Omar Benhanna. “They’re still under the debris. It wasn’t so long ago that we were playing together.”
The earthquake’s epicentre was located in Al Haouz province in the High Atlas of the mountains – an area usually not associated with earthquakes – about 75km (44 miles) from Marrakech, Morocco’s fourth largest city Marrakesh’s old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is reported to have been badly affected with images emerging of collapsed buildings.
Al Haouz was the hardest-hit province as Ouarzazate, Azilal, Chichaoua, and Taroudant provinces were also severely affected.
Amidst the tragedy, a number of Marrakech-based organisations and businesses have offered assistance to those affected by the quake. One of them is, a hotel owned by Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo. Reports suggest that the luxury hotel is providing shelter to those who have lost their homes.
Graded at four stars, just below luxury, the hotel includes an outdoor pool, fitness centre, restaurant, and terrace.
“The hotels are the same. We had to come to the new area of Marrakech, where there are more luxury hotels, so to speak.
“Now we have managed to get Cristiano Ronaldo’s hotel, which is on the outskirts, to give us a room.
“We are waiting. We have slept all night on the street and at seven in the morning they told us that yes, we could approach.
“We are in a lobby a lot of people of different nationalities, waiting to see if we can get a room, but we have all slept on the street,” Marca quoted a Spanish national, Irene Seixas.
