Rescue teams racing against time to locate survivors as Morocco quake deaths surpass 2,000
Rescue missions are racing against time on Monday to find survivors in the rubble more than 48 hours after Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, with more than 2,100 killed in a disaster that devastated villages in the High Atlas Mountains.
Search teams from Spain and Britain are joining efforts to find survivors of the 6.8 magnitude quake that struck late on Friday night 72 km (45 miles) southwest of Marrakech.
Many survivors spent a third night outside, their homes destroyed or rendered unsafe by Morocco’s most powerful earthquake since at least 1900. The death toll climbed to 2,122 with 2,421 people injured, state TV reported late on Sunday.
In the village of Tafeghaghte, Hamid ben Henna described how his eight-year-old son died under the rubble after he had gone to fetch a knife from the kitchen as the family were having their evening meal. The rest of the family survived.
People have been salvaging possessions from the ruins of their homes and describing desperate scenes as they dug with their bare hands to find relatives.
The damage done to Morocco’s cultural heritage has been emerging gradually.
Buildings in Marrakech old city, a World Heritage Site, were damaged.
The quake also reportedly did major damage to the historically significant 12th-century Tinmel Mosque in a remote mountain area closer to the epicentre.
