Moroccans tell of digging out their neighbours after quake

Rescuers in Morocco were yesterday trying to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings as the country began three days of mourning for victims of a disaster that killed more than 2,000 people and left many more injured and homeless.

- Ruth Michaelson, Dounia Z Mseffer

Friday's 6.8-magnitude quake, Morocco's deadliest in more than six decades, had an epicentre below a remote cluster of mountainous villages 45 miles south of Marrakech, and shook infrastructure as far away as the country's northern coast.

The government reported that at least 2,012 people were killed and more than 2,059 injured, many of them critically. In Marrakech, many people slept outside, fearing returning to their homes.

Emergency services rushed to reach remote villages where many more victims were feared trapped.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI chaired an emergency disaster response meeting on Saturday afternoon and declared three days of national mourning. Civil protection units were deployed to increase stocks in blood banks and ensure the supply of resources including water, food, tents and blankets to affected areas, the palace said.

Omar Bajjou, from near Asni at the foot of the Atlas mountains, said the force of the earthquake threw him out of bed, terrifying him and his wife.

Fleeing outside, they found chaos in their village. "All of the surrounding houses, especially the mud-brick ones, had crumbled, and the others had huge cracks in them, like they could collapse at any moment. There was dust everywhere, and the sound of screams," he said.