RABAT – The powerful earthquake, which struck Morocco killing more than 2,000 people on Friday, has reduced a small mountain village to rubble, German news agency (dpa) quoted a Moroccan media report on Sunday.
The quake, which rocked several areas in the North African country, completely destroyed the village located in the province of Chichaoua near the city of Marrakesh, Moroccan state television said, reported German news agency (dpa).
Rescuers operating in the village had retrieved 65 bodies from the rubble and were searching for four others, according to the broadcaster.
A mass grave was set up for their burial.
Due to the rugged area, authorities used drones to discover the bodies under the debris and aircraft to deliver relief aid to survivors, Moroccan news website Hespress reported.
It is not clear yet how many people lived in the village. But according to Hespress, there were around 100 mud-brick and cement houses there.
The 7-magnitude quake, which hit Morocco early on Friday, killed at least 2,012 people and injured 2,059 others, according to the latest official figures.
Morocco declared three days of national mourning for the victims, with the national flag flown at half mast over all public buildings, according to a royal court statement.
Morocco’s National Institute of Geophysics said the quake measured 7 on the Richter scale and was the most violent to have hit the country in a century.
The earthquake was Morocco's deadliest since 1960 when a quake struck the coastal city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000, according to media reports.
The last major earthquake to strike Morocco occurred in 2004, when a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed more than 600 people. – Bernama-dpa, September 10, 2023
