Thousands of people were killed after an earthquake flattened villages, rattled ancient mosques and touched off a race to save survivors.
A powerful earthquake struck Morocco on Friday night, killing and injuring thousands of people and devastating rural towns near the southwestern city of Marrakesh, one of the deadliest quakes in the country in decades, according to the Moroccan authorities.
Dozens of countries have offered assistance, but the government has been slow to allow international aid and foreign medical teams to enter the country. On Tuesday, search-and-rescue teams continued to trickle into the disaster zone to try to extract victims trapped under the rubble, but some areas were still out of reach.
Here’s what we know about the earthquake and its aftermath.What happened?
Around 11:11 p.m. on Friday, an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.8 tore through the countryside near Marrakesh to devastating effect. The quake flattened homes in villages across the High Atlas Mountains, tore up roads and shook Marrakesh’s ancient buildings, prompting residents to pour into the streets.
Residents in the region often built fragile mud-brick homes lacking strong foundations. Although the authorities have sought to improve earthquake resiliency in recent years, in part by passing more stringent building codes, many Moroccans still live in the frail structures.
The tremors could be felt as far as Spain and Portugal, more than 550 miles away, according to the United States Geological Survey. Aftershocks, including a 4.9-magnitude tremor about 20 minutes after the main quake, have sporadically rattled the area.
At least 2,901 people have died and 5,530 have been wounded, according to the Moroccan interior ministry as of Tuesday afternoon. That death toll is expected to rise as rescue teams, hampered by mountainous terrain and roads clogged with rubble, struggle to reach all the affected areas.
