Rescue workers are engaged in a race against time to try to rescue survivors from the rubble of Friday’s earthquake in Morocco.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck southwest of the city of Marrakesh late Friday has already claimed more than 2,100 lives. More than 2,400 people were injured, many of whom suffered critical injuries, in the strongest earthquake yet to hit the country.
Many countries have since offered to send search and rescue teams, including Spain, Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
An aid flight left Qatar on Sunday evening while Spain sent 86 rescue workers and eight search dogs.
The earthquake wiped out entire villages in the foothills of the Atlas mountain range. Many houses in remote mountain villages are built of mud bricks. The remote village of Tafeghaghte, 60 km from Marrakesh in Al-Haouz province, was almost completely destroyed. More than 1,300 deaths were recorded in Al-Haouz province alone.
Three days of national mourning have since been declared in the country. The Red Cross warned it could take years to repair the damage caused by the earthquake.
The earthquake was the deadliest in Morocco since an earthquake in 1960 that killed more than 12,000 people.
