Morocco earthquake: foreign rescuers in race to find survivors

RABAT: Foreign aid and rescue teams were joining the effort to find survivors amid the rubble of destroyed villages in Morocco’s Atlas mountains on Monday, three days after the country’s strongest-ever earthquake.

Friday’s 6.8-magnitude quake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, had an epicentre below a remote cluster of mountainous villages 45 miles south of Marrakech, and shook infrastructure as far away as the country’s northern coast.

The government reported that at least 2,122 people were killed and more than 2,421 injured, many of them critically. In Marrakech, many people slept outside on pavements and in squares, fearing returning to their homes.

The quake was the deadliest in Morocco since a 1960 earthquake destroyed Agadir, killing more than 12,000 people.

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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”, the defence ministry said in a 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.

Morocco said on Sunday 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.

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.