Powerful Morocco quake kills more than 1,000 people

Bangkok Post Group

The most powerful earthquake to strike Morocco in decades has killed more than 1,000 people and injured hundreds more. Many were killed in remote Atlas mountain villages, and the historic old city of Marrakech was damaged. - REUTERS

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00:00 Rescue workers combed rubble for survivors on Saturday in the village of Amizmiz, south

00:07 of Marrakech. Morocco's most powerful earthquake in six decades killed more than 1,000 people

00:15 and injured hundreds more. It toppled houses in remote mountain villages, where most of

00:21 the deaths occurred.

00:23 The magnitude 6.8 quake struck in the high Atlas Mountains late on Friday night. This

00:28 video captured the moment it struck in Marrakech, the closest city to the epicentre. Houses

00:36 collapsed and buildings were damaged in its densely built old city, a UNESCO World Heritage

00:41 site.

00:44 The minaret fell from this mosque in the historic Jamal al-Fanar Square and the medieval city

00:50 wall cracked. Marrakech resident Miloud Skirout says he was unable to get his sick parents

00:56 out of their house because of the destruction.

01:01 Tree, an Australian, was in Marrakech on a tour.

01:04 The room started shaking, there's no other way. We were going backwards and forwards

01:07 and everything started moving and pictures started moving and so we just grabbed some

01:14 clothes.

01:16 Residents spent the night in the open in many cities, afraid to go indoors. In Marrakech,

01:21 many people camped out on pool deck chairs. It was Morocco's deadliest earthquake since

01:27 1960, when a tremor was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people, according to

01:33 the US Geological Survey. Governments around the world offered support, including Turkey,

01:39 where powerful earthquakes in February killed more than 50,000 people.

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