AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — An aftershock shook Moroccans on Sunday as they mourned victims of the country’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and tried to rescue survivors while soldiers and aid workers ran to the destroyed mountain villages. More than 2,100 people lost their lives in the disaster – a number that is expected to increase.
The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s 6.8 magnitude tremor, and some Moroccans took to social media to complain that the government was not allowing more outside aid. International relief teams were on standby, but some felt frustrated waiting for the government to officially request help.
“We know that there is a very urgent need to rescue people and to dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Saviors Without Borders, whose team is stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “People are dying under the rubble and there is nothing we can do to save them.”
Aid was slow to arrive in Amizmiz, where an entire section of the town of orange and red sandstone brick houses carved into the mountainside appears to be missing. The minaret of a mosque collapsed.
“It’s a disaster,” said 28-year-old villager Salah Ancheu. “We don’t know what the future looks like. The aid remains inadequate.”
Local residents swept debris from the main dirt road into town and people cheered as trucks full of soldiers arrived. But they asked for more help.
“At least for the moment there are no ambulances and no police,” said Ancheu.
Those who were homeless – or fearful of more aftershocks – slept outside on Saturday, on the streets of the ancient city of Marrakesh or under makeshift canopies in hard-hit towns in the Atlas Mountains like Moulay Brahim. The worst of the destruction occurred in rural communities, which are difficult to reach because the roads winding through the mountainous terrain were covered with fallen rocks.
A magnitude 3.9 aftershock struck those areas again on Sunday, according to the US Geological Survey. It wasn’t immediately clear if it caused more damage or casualties, but it was likely powerful enough to shake nerves in areas where damage has left buildings unstable and residents feared aftershocks.
Friday’s earthquake collapsed buildings not strong enough to withstand such a powerful tremor, leaving people trapped in the rubble and others fleeing in horror. A total of 2,122 people were confirmed dead and at least 2,421 others were injured – 1,404 of them critically, the Interior Ministry reported.
Most of the dead – 1,351 – were in the Al Haouz district in the High Atlas, the ministry said.
Flags were lowered across Morocco when King Mohammed VI. ordered a three-day national mourning starting on Sunday. The army mobilized search and rescue teams and the king ordered water, food rations and shelter to be sent to those who had lost their homes.
He also demanded that mosques pray for the victims on Sunday, many of whom were buried in the frenetic rescue work nearby on Saturday.
However, according to aid organizations, Morocco has not issued an international call for help, as Turkey did in the hours after a severe tremor earlier in the year.
Morocco’s interior ministry announced on Sunday that it was accepting international aid from Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. The ministry said the Moroccan authorities had carefully assessed needs on the ground, stressing that lack of coordination would be counterproductive. Efforts will focus on search and rescue operations.
But offers of help were pouring in from around the world, and the United Nations said it had a team in Morocco to coordinate international assistance. About 100 teams with a total of 3,500 rescuers are registered with a UN platform and are ready to be deployed in Morocco on request, said Rescuers Without Borders. Germany had kept a team of more than 50 rescuers waiting near Cologne-Bonn Airport but sent them home, the dpa news agency reported.
A Spanish search and rescue team arrived in Marrakech and made its way to rural Talat N’Yaaqoub, the Spanish Military Emergency Unit said. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in a radio interview that the Moroccan authorities had asked for help. Another rescue team from Nice, France was also on the way.
Officials in the Czech Republic earlier said the country had dispatched about 70 members of a rescue team trained in searching through debris, after receiving an official request from the Moroccan government. Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said three military planes were prepared to transport the team.
In France, which has many ties to Morocco and says four of its citizens died in the quake, cities and towns have offered more than two million euros ($2.1 million) in aid. Popular artists collect donations.
The epicenter of Friday’s quake was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz province, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Marrakech. The region is known for its picturesque villages and valleys in the High Atlas.
The devastation gripped every town along the steep and winding switchbacks of the High Atlas Mountains, houses collapsed and people wept as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.
“I was sleeping when the earthquake struck. I couldn’t escape because the roof fell on me. I was trapped. I was rescued by my neighbors who were clearing away the rubble with their bare hands,” Fatna Bechar said in Moulay Brahim. “Now I live with them in their house because mine was completely destroyed.”
There was little time for mourning as survivors tried to salvage something from the damaged homes.
Khadija Fairouje’s face was swollen from crying as she joined relatives and neighbors lugging belongings through stone-strewn streets. She had lost her daughter and three grandchildren, aged 4 to 11, when their home collapsed while they slept less than 48 hours earlier.
“There is nothing left. Everything fell,” said her sister Hafida Fairouje.
The Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity is coordinating aid for around 15,000 families in Al Haouz province, including food, medical aid, emergency shelter and blankets, the state news agency MAP quoted the head of the organization, Youssef Rabouli, as saying after his visit to the region.
Rescuers, supported by soldiers and police, searched collapsed houses in the remote town of Adassil, near the epicenter. Military vehicles brought bulldozers and other equipment to clear roads, MAP reported. Ambulances brought dozens of injured people from the 800-inhabitant village of Tikht to the Mohammed VI University Hospital in Marrakech.
In Marrakech, large chunks of a crenellated roof were missing, and all that remained of a building cordoned off by police was warped metal, crumbling concrete and dust.
Tourists and local residents lined up to donate blood.
“I didn’t think twice about it,” Jalila Guerina told The Associated Press, “especially in the conditions people are dying in, especially at this moment when they need help, any help.” She referred to her duty as a Moroccan citizen.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it struck at 11:11 p.m. and lasted several seconds, the USGS said. A magnitude 4.9 aftershock struck 19 minutes later, sources said. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at relatively shallow depths, making an earthquake more dangerous.
It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the North African country in over 120 years, according to USGS records dating back to 1900, but it wasn’t the deadliest. In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near the city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000 people. This quake prompted Morocco to change building codes, but many buildings, particularly country homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.
In 2004, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal town of Al Hoceima killed more than 600 people.
According to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere and the Algerian Civil Protection Agency, Friday’s quake was felt as far as Portugal and Algeria.
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Contributors included Angela Charlton and Elaine Ganley in Paris, Brian Melley in London, Mark Carlson in Marrakesh, Houda Benalla in Rabat, Morocco, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Karel Janicek in Prague.