Morocco’s MARRAKECH — A rare, severe earth quake rocked Morocco, causing people to rush from their beds into the streets and causing structures in mountainous communities and historic cities not meant to withstand such intensity to collapse. More than 1,000 people died, and the death toll was sure to grow as rescuers struggled Saturday to reach the hardest-hit isolated places where the dead were laid to rest, even as desperate efforts to save those stranded were continuing.

People fled their homes in panic and bewilderment late Friday after the magnitude-6.8 quake struck the North African country for the first time in 120 years. According to one witness, dishes and wall hangings began to pour down, knocking people off their feet. The scale of the devastation became clear in the daylight.

The quake destroyed stone and masonry barriers not built to withstand earthquakes, burying entire neighborhoods in debris and forcing inhabitants to precariously through the remnants. Rescuers searched all night to locate survivors buried in the sandy ruins.

In the center of the impoverished mountain town of Moulay Brahim, where dwellings made of clay and brick were largely left uninhabitable, a tent often used for festivals was erected for refuge. Fathers wailed into their phones, informing loved ones they had lost their children. Doctors took shards from people’s feet and treated surface wounds while bodies covered in blankets lay in the health center next to a mosque.

“There’s nothing to do but pray,” Hamza Lamghani, who had five of his closest friends killed, said.

On official television, people were seen swarming on the streets of ancient Marrakech, scared to return inside structures that may be unstable. Many people attempted to sleep outside by wrapping themselves in blankets.

The iconic Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, erected in the 12th century, was damaged, but the amount of damage was not immediately evident. The 69-meter (226-foot) minaret is called the “roof of Marrakech.” Moroccans also shared videos of damage to the famed red walls surrounding the ancient city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A rare, severe earth quake rocked Morocco, causing people to rush from their beds into the streets and causing structures in mountainous communities and historic cities not meant to withstand such intensity to collapse.

At least 1,037 people were killed, largely in Marrakech and five regions surrounding the epicenter, while another 1,204 were injured, according to Morocco’s Interior Ministry on Saturday morning. According to the government, 721 of the injured were in critical condition.

“The problem is that in areas where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not built robustly enough to withstand strong ground shaking,” said Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. “I expect the final death toll to rise into the thousands once more information becomes available.” As with every major earthquake, aftershocks are inevitable, increasing casualties and complicating search and rescue efforts.”

According to a military statement, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital as a sign of the magnitude of the calamity.

The monarch said he would visit the worst-affected areas on Saturday, but despite an outpouring of promises of assistance from around the world, the Moroccan government has yet to publicly request help, which is required before outside rescue workers can deploy.

Ayoub Toudite claimed he was working out with friends at a gym in Moulay Brahim, a hillside town south of Marrakech, when “we felt a huge shake like it was doomsday.” He claimed that everything was gone in 10 seconds.

“We are all terrified that this will happen again,” Toudite said, pleading on social media for more ambulances to be dispatched to the area.

Rescuers used hammers and axes to liberate a man trapped beneath a two-story structure. People who could fit into the cramped space were handing him water.

Hundreds of men gathered in town as bodies wrapped in blankets were taken down the hill from the health center to the square. In a burial ceremony, they knelt on rugs and prayed for the dead before carrying them to be buried.

The tremor’s epicenter was near the village of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, around 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is famous for its picturesque villages and valleys in the High Atlas Mountains.

The mayor of Talat N’Yaaqoub, Abderrahim Ait Daoud, told Moroccan news site 2M that authorities were attempting to clear roads in Al Haouz Province to allow relief to get through, but that because to the enormous distances between mountain towns, it would take time to determine the extent of the damage.

The Moroccan military dispatched aircraft, helicopters, and drones, and emergency services mobilized relief operations to the most vulnerable locations. However, roads leading to the mountain region surrounding the epicenter were congested with vehicles and blocked by fallen rocks, impeding rescue efforts. According to the government news agency MAP, trucks carrying blankets, camp cots, and lighting equipment were attempting to reach the hard-hit area.

Ambulances with sirens blasting and honking cars steered past masses of Mars-like red rock that had crashed from the mountainside and blocked the road on the high.

Ambulances with sirens blasting and honking cars steered past masses of Mars-like red rock that had crashed from the mountainside and blocked the road on the high, winding switchbacks from Marrakech to Al Haouz. Workers from the Red Cross attempted to move a boulder that was blocking the two-lane highway.

As condolences poured in from Europe, the Middle East, and a Group of 20 summit in India, world leaders volunteered to send supplies or rescue workers. Among those proposing assistance was Turkey’s president, who lost tens of thousands of people in a major earthquake earlier this year. France and Germany, which have big populations of Moroccan ancestry, have also assisted, while the governments of Ukraine and Russia have expressed sympathy for Moroccans.

Earthquakes are uncommon in North Africa. The earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the region, according to Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir in 1960, killing hundreds. Although the quake triggered improvements in Moroccan construction regulations, many buildings, particularly rural dwellings, are not designed to survive such tremors.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima 2004 killed around 600 people.

SOURCE – (AP)