BREAKING NEWS
Timid Casablanca residents fled their homes and stayed in the streets
A stable earthquake of magnitude 6.8 has struck central Morocco, killing now not lower than 296 folks, the country’s interior ministry says.
The epicentre used to be in the High Atlas Mountains, 71km (44 miles) south-west of Marrakesh, at a depth of 18.5km, the US Geological Gaze said.
The quake struck at 23:11 local time (22:11 GMT). There used to be a 4.9 aftershock 19 minutes later.
Americans died in Marrakesh and several areas to the south, the ministry said.
“Per a provisional document, the earthquake killed 296 folks in the provinces and municipalities of al-Haouz, Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant,” the bid said, adding that 153 folks had been injured and hospitalised.
Unverified video clips on X (formerly Twitter) existing damaged structures, other structures shaking and rubble-strewn streets. Americans are seen fleeing in dread and some walking thru clouds of dirt.
Some structures in Marrakesh’s previous metropolis possess collapsed, one resident instructed the Reuters news agency. Several clips on X existing structures crashing down, however the BBC has now not identified where they had been.
Locals are said to possess made up our minds to cease exterior their homes in case the metropolis is rocked by phenomenal aftershocks.
One other man in the historical metropolis described feeling a “violent tremor” and seeing “structures transferring”.
“Americans had been all in shock and scare. The young folks had been crying and the folks had been distraught,” Abdelhak El Amrani instructed the AFP agency.
He said energy and cell telephone lines had been down for ten minutes.
AFP also reported that one family used to be trapped in the collapsed rubble of a home – and that a choice of folks in the metropolis had been taken to sanatorium.
The quake’s epicentre in a far off home of the High Atlas Mountains used to be somewhat shallow – and tremors had been also reportedly felt in the capital Rabat, some 350km away, as properly as Casablanca and Essaouira.
Easy structures in mountain villages shut to the epicentre would possibly perchance perchance per chance even honest now not possess survived and, being far off, it’ll also honest steal some time to make a choice casualties there.