Morocco is racing against time to save trapped survivors under the rubble of Friday’s earthquake, as emergency services scramble to deliver supplies to remote areas.
Villagers continued to dig with hands and shovels to find survivors, while response teams struggled to bring in machinery.
These same tools may now be needed to prepare graves for the thousands of people who died in the earthquake.
Friday’s earthquake, the deadliest the country has seen in 60 years, hit a group of isolated mountain villages south of Marrakesh.
The government reported at least 2,122 people killed and more than 2,421 injured, many seriously.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake destroyed homes, blocked roads and shook buildings on the country’s north coast.
Trapped Survivors
The old town of Marrakesh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was damaged.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco declared three days of national mourning on Saturday as the fallout continued.
The palace said civil protection units were deployed to bolster bank reserves of blood, water, food, tents and blankets.
However, he acknowledged that some of the worst-affected areas were so isolated that they were inaccessible for several hours after the quake – the most critical period for many of the injured.
Falling rocks partially blocked poorly maintained roads leading to the High Atlas Mountains, where many of the hardest-hit areas were.
Many buildings were reduced to rubble in the small town of Amizmiz, in a mountain valley about 55 kilometers south of Marrakesh.
The local hospital was empty and considered unsafe to enter.
Instead, patients are treated in tents located on hospital grounds, but staff are overwhelmed.
A hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 100 bodies were brought there on Saturday.
Outside the hospital, the streets were filled with rubble from destroyed buildings, heavy traffic and people who had lost everything to the earthquake.
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A woman wails in grief and is embraced by those around her.
There are many tents on the side of the road for people who have lost their homes, but not everyone has one.
Dozens of people slept on mats placed on the ground in the central square.
Abdelkarim Brouri, 63, was among those whose houses partially collapsed and had nothing to protect them from the elements.
In a nearby village, crude graves covered with sticks and stones identified some of the 100 residents who died.
Gravediggers are having to prepare more carefully as people say they have not received official support and have to search and bury the dead on their own.
