Foreign rescuers join Morocco quake race against time
TIKHT, Morocco: Rescuers on Monday faced a growing race against time to dig any survivors from the rubble of devastated villages in Morocco’s Atlas mountains, three days after the country’s strongest-ever earthquake.
The 6.8-magnitude quake that struck late Friday southwest of the city of Marrakesh has claimed more than 2,100 lives and injured over 2,400, many seriously, according to official figures updated late on Sunday.
Rabat on Sunday announced it had accepted aid offers from four foreign nations, while many other countries have also said they were willing to send assistance.
Authorities have responded favourably “at this stage” to offers from Spain, Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates “to send search and rescue teams”, the interior ministry said.
It noted the foreign teams were in contact with Moroccan authorities to coordinate efforts, and said only four offers had been accepted because “a lack of coordination could be counterproductive”.
Other offers may be accepted in the future “if the needs evolve”, according to the ministry.
France was willing to provide aid “the second” Morocco requested it, President Emmanuel Macron said.
A Qatari aid flight left from Al-Udeid air base outside Doha on Sunday evening, an AFP journalist said.
Spain has sent 86 rescuers and eight search dogs to Morocco to “help in the search and rescue of survivors of the devastating earthquake suffered in our neighbouring country”, said a defence ministry statement.
“We will send whatever is needed because everyone knows that these first hours are key, especially if there are people buried under rubble,” Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told public television.
The earthquake wiped out entire villages in the hills of the Atlas mountain range, where civilian rescuers and members of Morocco’s armed forces have searched for survivors and the bodies of the dead.
Many houses in remote mountain villages were built from mud bricks.
The remote village of Tafeghaghte, 60 kilometres from Marrakesh in Al-Haouz province, was almost entirely destroyed, an AFP team reported, with very few buildings still standing.
“Everyone is gone! My heart is broken. I am inconsolable,” cried Zahra Benbrik, 62, who said she had lost 18 relatives.