On September 11, the third day since the devastating earthquake in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, the country's Interior Ministry confirmed that nearly 2,497 people were killed and about 2,122 others were injured.
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| A boy carries furniture after a deadly earthquake in a village on the outskirts of Talaat N'Yaaqoub, Morocco. (Source: Reuters) |
Currently, local search and rescue forces and foreign rescue teams are racing against time to find survivors under the rubble.
The force has struggled to reach remote mountain towns devastated by the devastating earthquake, where survivors are desperate for help to find loved ones trapped under the rubble.
Moroccan officials have so far accepted government-provided aid from only four countries: Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Some foreign aid groups say they are waiting for permission to deploy. Morocco’s interior ministry said officials want to avoid a lack of coordination that “would be counterproductive.”
The United Nations estimates that about 300,000 people were affected by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Friday evening, September 8.
In the disaster-ravaged community of Talat Nyacoub, 12 ambulances, dozens of military and police vehicles were deployed along with about 100 Moroccan rescue workers searching for signs of life under collapsed houses. Nearby, a Spanish rescue team of 30 firefighters, a doctor, a nurse and two technicians was working with local forces to prepare for the excavation.
About 70 kilometers to the north, another Spanish rescue team from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) set up camp on the edge of Amizmiz village on the evening of September 10 to prepare for the search and rescue operation. The rescue team used four rescue dogs and a miniature camera to detect victims.
Albert Vasquez, a member of UME, said that "it is very unlikely that anyone will be found alive after three days. However, there is still hope", similar to how UME found survivors seven days after the earthquake tragedy in Türkiye in February.
Britain said it was sending a 60-strong search and rescue team to Morocco, along with a medical assessment team, four rescue dogs and specialist equipment.
On the same day, Caroline Holt, head of disaster, climate and crisis issues at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the situation in remote and rugged areas posed a major challenge to search and rescue efforts. The official affirmed that the current priority is to bring heavy machinery to those areas.
The earthquake flattened villages in the hills of the Atlas Mountains. Most homes were built of mud bricks and wood or cinder blocks and cement, which are structurally weak against earthquakes. According to Moroccan media, more than 18,000 families were affected by the disaster. The Moroccan government has declared three days of national mourning starting on September 10.
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