Rescuers race to find survivors after Morocco quake

Rescuers raced against time on Monday to find survivors in the rubble after Morocco's deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, with more than 2,800killed in a disaster that devastated villages in the High Atlas Mountains.

Search teams from Spain, Britain and Qatar joined Moroccan efforts to find survivors of the 6.8-magnitude quake that struck late on Friday night 72 kilometres southwest of Marrakech.

Many survivors were spending a fourth night outside, their homes destroyed or rendered unsafe. The death toll has climbed to 2,862with 2,562people injured, state TVreported lateMonday.

Footage from the remote village of Imi N'Tala, filmed by Spanish rescuer Antonio Nogales of the aid group Bomberos Unidos Sin Fronteras (United Firefighters Without Borders), showed men and dogs clambering over steep slopes covered in rubble.

Not a single house left standing

"The level of destruction is ... absolute," said Nogales, struggling to find the right word to describe what he was seeing.

"Not a single house has stayed upright. We're going to start our search with dogs and see whether we can find anyone alive."

CBC's Chris Brown reported from the village on Monday, saying "damage here is the worst we've seen anywhere," after ahuge slabof mountain earth fellon dozens of buildings.

"We're told a dozen people died immediately, and there may well be dozens more who are trapped.After 72 hours,the chances of finding people alive after an earthquake who've been buried drops exponentially."

In Imgdal, a nearby village also south of Marrakech, women and children huddled early on Wednesday morning under makeshift tents set up along the road and next to damaged buildings. Some gathered around an open fire. Further south, a car stood crushed by boulders that had fallen from the cliff.

In the village of Tafeghaghte, Hamid ben Henna described how his eight-year-old son died under the rubble after he had gone to fetch a knife from the kitchen as the family were having their evening meal. The rest of the family survived.

Damage to 12th-century mosque

With much of the quake zone in hard-to-reach areas, the full impact has yet to emerge and authorities have not issued any estimates for the number of people still missing.

Roads blocked or obstructed by dislodged rocks have made it harder to access the hardest-hit locations.

On a road near the town of Adassil, not far from the epicentre, rescue worker Ayman Koait was trying to clear rockfalls that were blocking traffic.

"There are worse roads further up that are still blocked and we're trying to open them, too," he said as vans loaded with aid squeezed along a narrow cleared track.

People have been salvaging possessions from the ruins of their homes and describing desperate scenes as they dug with their bare hands to find relatives.

WATCH | Foreign rescue teams work in the quake disaster zone:

Rescue teams from U.K., Spain in Moroccan quake disaster zone

1 year ago

Duration 3:15

The desperate search for earthquake survivors in Morocco is now in its third day, as Moroccan state television reports that the number of confirmed dead is nearly 2,500.

Many structures crumbled easily, includingtraditional mud brick, stone and rough wood houses, one of the picturesque features that have made the High Atlas a magnet for tourists for generations.

"It's difficult to pull people out alive because most of the walls and ceilings turned to earthen rubble when they fell, burying whoever was inside without leaving air space," said a military worker, asking not to be named because of army rules.

Damage to 12th-century mosque

The harm done to Morocco's cultural heritage has been emerging gradually. Buildings in Marrakech old city, a United Nations World Heritage Site, were damaged. The quake also reportedly did major damage to the historically significant 12th-century Tinmel Mosque in a remote mountain area closer to the epicentre.

It was the North African country's deadliest earthquake since 1960, when a tremor was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people, and the most powerful since at least 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Survivors struggling to find shelter and supplies have voiced criticism of what they have described as an initially slow government response.

Morocco has deployed the army and has said it is reinforcing search-and-rescue teams, providing drinking water and distributing food, tents and blankets.

Offers of aid

Neither King Mohammed VI nor Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch have addressed the nation since the disaster.

In a televised statement on Sunday, government spokesperson Mustapha Baytas said every effort was being made on the ground.

He added that King Mohammed had instructed the prime minister to meet on Monday with a ministerial committee that is developing emergency plans, including for home reconstruction.

Morocco had accepted offers of aid from Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

State TV said the government had assessed aid needs and considered the importance of co-ordinating relief efforts before accepting help, and that it might accept relief offers from other countries and would work to co-ordinate them if needed.

WATCH | What made Morocco's earthquake so deadly:

Seismologist explains what made Moroccos earthquake so deadly

1 year ago

Duration 3:53

A rare and powerful earthquake toppled buildings and killed at least 2,000 people in Morocco. Seismology and geophysics expert John Cassidy explains what made this particular quake so destructive and deadly.

The World Health Organization saysmore than 300,000 people have been affected by the disaster.

The European Union said it was releasing an initial onemillion euros ($1.07 million) to non-governmental aid organizations already in Morocco, and was in contact with the Moroccan authorities to offer full EU civil protection assistance, should it require it.