An earthquake has reportedly struck Morocco late Friday, damaging buildings in major cities and sending panicked people pouring into streets and alleyways from the capital Rabat to Marrakech, the county’s most visited tourist destination.
Moroccans posted videos showing some buildings turned to rubble and dust and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in historic Marrakech damaged. Tourists and others posted videos of people evacuating restaurants in the city as throbbing club music played.
In a harrowing incident on Friday night, Morocco was struck by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that took the lives of over 600 individuals in the High Atlas region, adjacent to the historic city of Marrakech.
Montasir Itri, a resident of the mountain village of Asni near the epicentre, said most houses there were damaged. “Our neighbors are under the rubble and people are working hard to rescue those using available means in the village,” he said.
Morocco’s interior ministry on Saturday morning announced a preliminary death toll of 632 with 329 injured. It added that the earthquake, which struck shortly after 11 p.m., affected the provinces of Al Haouz, Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant. The tremors were felt as far as Rabat and Casablanca on the Atlantic coast, where some residents fled their homes and spent the night on the streets.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. (2211 GMT), with shaking that lasted several seconds. Morocco’s National Seismic Monitoring and Alert Network measured it at 7 on the Richter scale. The U.S. agency reported a magnitudue-4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.
The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was high in the Atlas Mountains roughly 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of Marrakech. It was also near Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort.
The USGS said the epicenter was 18 kilometers (11 miles) below the Earth’s surface, while Morocco’s seismic agency put it at 8 kilometers (5 miles) down.
