2 minutes ago ⚠️ Morocco earthquake death toll rises! The country is in mourning!

A powerful earthquake in Morocco killed more than 800 people and injured hundreds. It was the country’s deadliest aftershock in more than six decades, destroying homes in remote mountain villages where rescuers dug through the rubble to find survivors. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. According to the data, 820 people died, another 672 were injured. According to updated data, most of the deaths occurred in mountainous areas outside Marrakech, closest to the city’s epicenter. In the village of Amizmiz, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Marrakech, rescuers cleared the rubble. “When I felt that the ground was shaking under my feet and the house was falling, I rushed to get the children out. But my neighbors couldn’t,“ said Mohamed Azav. “Unfortunately, no one was found alive in this family, the father and son were found dead, the search for the mother and daughter continues.“ About 20 people, including firefighters and uniformed soldiers, stood near the ruins of a house in Amizmiz, trying to remove debris, pieces of carpet and furniture sticking out of the cracks between the concrete floors. In Marrakesh, where 13 people were confirmed dead, residents spent the night in the open, afraid to return home. Buildings in the old city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were damaged. The minaret of the mosque collapsed on Jemaa al-Fna Square, in the center of the old city. Victims came to Marrakesh from the surrounding area in search of treatment. State television footage from the Moulay Ibrahim district, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Marrakech, showed dozens of destroyed houses at the foot of the mountain, with residents digging graves and groups of women standing outside. Montasir Itri, a resident of Asni village near the epicenter, said most of the houses there were damaged. “Our neighbors are under the rubble, and people are making every effort to save them with the means available in the village,“ he said. Further west, near Tarudant, teacher Hamid Afkar said he ran from his home and felt tremors. “The ground was shaking for about 20 seconds. The door was opening and closing by itself when I jumped from the second floor,“ he said. In Marrakech, residents described desperate scenes as people fled for safety. “I still can’t sleep at home because of the shock and also because the old city is made up of old houses,“ said Jauhari Mohamed, a resident of the old city. “If one falls, it causes others to fall,“ he said. The interior ministry called for calm, saying in a televised statement that the quake had hit the provinces of Al-Hawz, Ouarzazate, Marrakesh, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant. Morocco’s geophysical center said the quake struck just after 11 p.m. (22:00 GMT) in the Igil district of the High Atlas. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Morocco since 1960, killing at least 12,000 people, according to the US Geological Survey. Igil, a mountainous region with small farming villages, is located about 70 km (40 mi) southwest of Marrakech. Tremors from the earthquake were felt in Huelva and Jaen in Andalucia in southern Spain, television reported. Governments around the world expressed solidarity and offered help. Turkey, where a massive earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in February, said it was ready to provide support. The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are to be held in Marrakesh in early October. In Marrakesh, some houses in the densely populated old city collapsed and people were clearing debris with their hands as they waited for heavy equipment, resident Ida Waaziz Hassan said. People in the country’s capital Rabat, about 350 km north of Igil, and in the coastal city of Imsouane, about 180 km west of it, also left their homes for fear of a stronger earthquake. In Casablanca, about 250 kilometers north of Igil, people sleeping on the streets were too scared to return to their homes. “The house was shaking a lot, everyone was scared,“ resident Mohamed Takafi said. In 2004, an earthquake in El Hoceima in northeastern Morocco killed at least 628 people and injured 926 others. The 1980 magnitude 7.3 El Asnam earthquake in neighboring Algeria was one of the largest and most destructive earthquakes in recent history. As a result, 2.5 thousand people died and at least 300 thousand people were left without blood.