Mum's joy.. grief

Daughter pulled alive from devastated home.. but her brother, 15, did not survive

- PHIL CARDY,  TIM MERRY

THE horror and desperation – but also the hope – after the Morocco earthquake is clear in this remote village where 10% of the people died. 

Together with photographer Tim Merry, I visited Sidi Hssain, a place that is carved into the steep terrain of the Atlas Mountains.

The scale of the destruction here is hard to comprehend. Whole buildings crashed down the mountainside while people were sleeping in their beds.

Hassan Wakrim and his family invited us to see the damage to homes. They led us through treacherous alleys where children once played football and which are now covered in crushed concrete.

We saw a heartbroken mum, Razini, crouching at the small crater where the body of her 15-year-old son Walid was pulled from the devastation. She was reciting prayers and crying in French “morte, morte”, meaning “dead, dead”.

Thankfully, her daughter Nura, 10, was pulled alive from the rubble, suffering only minor injuries to her face and arm.

Hassan’s niece, Meryem Hissi, 15, was on hand to translate for the family. Looking at her neighbour, she told us: “She’s broken. She has lost her son. But she still has her daughter. He was my friend. I had two friends who died.”