Race against time to find survivors of Morocco earthquake as death toll nears 2,700

Rescue teams – including experts from the UK – arrive to help urgent search almost 72 hours after disaster

Members of Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME) work to reach potential victims in the village of Anougal (Spanish Emergency Military Unit (UME)/Reuters TV via Reuters)

Rescuers face a race against time to find survivors of the deadly earthquake in Morocco, with international search and rescue personnel arriving to help the search almost 72 hours after the disaster.

The earthquake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, has claimed the lives of nearly 2,700 people and a similar number of wounded, many of them seriously.

Search teams from Britain, Spain and Qatar have joined efforts to find people buried under the rubble, including in some of the remote villages in the High Atlas mountains close to the epicentre of the quake.

“The level of destruction is... absolute,” said Spanish rescuer Antonio Nogales. “Not a single house has stayed upright.”

“We’re going to start our search with dogs and see whether we can find anyone alive,” he said in video footage he filmed in the village of Imi N’Tala, about 45 miles (72km) from Marrakech.

Residents of the other villages and towns in the area have been desperately digging with their bare hands to find neighbours and relatives. They have been waiting for machinery to help the search, but the hardest-hit locations have been difficult to reach thanks to roads obstructed by pieces of collapsed houses.

Women and children queue for aid in Tinmel in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

“It’s difficult to pull people out alive because most of the walls and ceilings turned to earthen rubble when they fell, burying whoever was inside without leaving air spaces,” an unnamed military rescue worker told Reuters.

With many homes built out of timber, mud bricks and stone in such rural areas, structures crumbled easily without creating the air pockets needed for survival. This has heightened the urgency for rescue workers who have reached these areas.

Most of the destruction caused by the near-7 magnitude quake is centred in the Al Haouz province southwest of Marrakech. The relatively shallow depth of the quake has made it even more catastrophic, with the UN believing it has affected up to 300,000 people.

As they struggle to find shelter and supplies, survivors of the earthquake have voiced criticism of the Moroccan government’s delay in authorising international teams to enter the country. Many of those left homeless were likely to spend a fourth night out in the open, or gather under makeshift tents on the side of the road.

“It’s a catastrophe,” 28-year-old survivor Salah Ancheu told the Associated Press in the town of Amizmiz at the foot of the High Atlas mountains. “We don’t know what the future is.”

Government spokesperson Mustapha Baytas has said every effort is being made on the ground, with the Moroccan army having mobilised over the weekend to help supply blankets, food and drinking water to a number of areas.

Mouath Aytnasr, 20, walks on the rubble of his damaged house, on the outskirts of Talat N’Yaaqoub (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Many countries have offered support for Morocco, including France, Turkey and Germany. The Czech Republic said it had a team of 70 rescuers ready to go and is waiting for permission to take off. So far, Morocco has accepted aid from just four countries – Spain, Qatar, UAE and the UK – as it works out what is needed.

Both France and Germany played down the significance of Morocco not immediately taking them up on their offers of aid.

Berlin said it saw no indication that the decision was political, while France has said it stood ready to help whenever Morocco made a formal request and any controversy on the issue was “misplaced”.

“We are ready to help Morocco. It’s a sovereign Moroccan decision and it’s up to them to decide,” France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna told BFM television.

Paris has made €5m (£4.3m) available for non-governmental organisations operating in Morocco, Ms Colonna said. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI was in France when the quake hit, she added.

Paris and Rabat have had a difficult relationship in recent years notably over the issue of Western Sahara, a disputed territory that Morocco wants France to recognise as Moroccan. Morocco has not had an ambassador in Paris since January.

France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 that Morocco, a “brotherly” nation, had the capabilities to cope alone with the rescue efforts.

A British rescue team arrived in Morocco on Monday, including 60 search and rescue specialists and rescue dogs. Foreign secretary James Cleverly said Britain remains in contact with Moroccan authorities about any future requirements.

Moroccan state TV said Rabat would consider the importance of coordinating relief efforts before accepting further help.

Reuters and AP contributed to this report