Houses in Morocco's quake-hit Talat N'Yaaqoub razed to the ground

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Everything has collapsed in the town of Talat in Yaqub.

00:04 The police station, the local school, the post office,

00:09 not to mention hundreds of homes and businesses.

00:12 The town has all but disappeared.

00:15 It's hard to imagine that 8,000 people once lived here.

00:18 Fatima was born in Talat in Yaqub but now lives in Marrakech.

00:23 After the earthquake struck, she drove for 11 hours to return to her hometown.

00:29 She says it's now unrecognisable.

00:32 This was my dad's shop.

00:36 It was a small shop.

00:38 There it is.

00:40 This is the road she grew up on.

00:44 There, that's our house.

00:49 It was here and my grandmother's was here.

00:56 Fatima has lost 11 family members to the earthquake.

00:59 The latest victim is her 15-year-old cousin.

01:03 His dad and other people tried to get him out.

01:09 They got my grandmother out, his wife out, and his grandson and his granddaughter.

01:17 And when they came back for my little cousin, it was too late.

01:23 Do you feel like your town has completely disappeared?

01:26 It's disappeared.

01:28 It's disappeared, that's sure and certain.

01:31 Do you see anything here?

01:33 There's nothing left. That's it.

01:36 It's disappeared.

01:38 It's disappeared with its people, with everything.

01:41 A few metres away, a team of Moroccan firefighters are busy working through the wreckage.

01:49 Their sniffer dog shows signs it's detected a body.

01:52 The town's school teacher, who is still missing, used to live here.

01:56 Rescue workers aren't holding on to much hope.

02:00 We've pulled out other victims from other homes.

02:06 All of them are dead, yeah.

02:10 It's been days since the quake struck.

02:15 It's too late.

02:17 It's too late.

02:18 Further away from Talet in Yaakoub, there are people in even more remote areas still waiting for help from emergency services.

02:27 With many still buried under the rubble, the country is bracing for the death toll to climb.

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