The death toll from a powerful earthquake in northern Morocco rose to at least 564, but rescuers kept up a frantic search yesterday for survivors under the rubble of devastated mud-brick homes.
Hundreds of other people were reported injured in and around the Mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima when the quake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, struck early on Tuesday as many people were sleeping in their houses.
"The death toll has risen to 564," Health Minister Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah told state television 2M.
PHOTO: AP
Dozens of aftershocks and rain made relief efforts even more difficult in outlying villages in the foothills of the Rif mountains.
Many people spent the night in the open or under sheeting and other makeshift shelters because their homes were destroyed. Some said they just felt safer away from buildings.
"It's a total disaster, the world needs to help us," said Hassan Hmidouch, head of the town council in the village of Im-Zouren.
Villagers, some digging with their bare hands or shovels to search for survivors, said equipment and sniffer dogs were needed.
"They sent the military which basically ordered us to stop digging, but they couldn't do much themselves for lack of equipment," said Abdelkhalek, a teacher who did not want to give his full name.
In his village of Ait Kamara, 18km to the south of Al Hoceima, many houses were flattened like cardboard boxes.
His parents, three brothers and one sister were killed when their home was reduced to rubble in the nearby hamlet of Ait Abdelaziz, where he said 70 percent of houses were destroyed.
"My sister was shouting, begging me to lift a big, heavy door under which she was trapped. We could not, she died," he said, sobbing.
In Al Hoceima, a fishing port and beach resort of about 70,000 inhabitants, damage was limited but authorities struggled to deal with the dead, injured and homeless from nearby areas.
"As soon as we think we've seen all the dead and injured, more keep coming in ambulances," said a doctor at the main Mohammed V hospital, where dozens of corpses were laid out.
Many of the injured were being treated in army barracks, health centers and charity homes. Others were airlifted to the capital Rabat, Casablanca and Meknes.
North Africa's last major earthquake hit neighboring Algeria last May.
It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and killed 2,300 people near the capital Algiers.
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