Survivors are recounting harrowing experiences following Morocco's powerful earthquake. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck late on Friday with the epicentre near the city of Marrakesh.
Bouchra Guetbach was at home with her 5-year-old daughter, watching TV, when she suddenly felt the floor beneath her's shaking and people were screaming amid rumbling sound of destruction.
‘’I went running to my daughter and picked her up. It was my first instinct, and when we got outside, all my neighbours were outside; everybody was shaking,’’ she recounts to TRT Afrika.
Electricity, water and food supplies were interrupted. Bochan saw the devastation and expanse of destruction.
High death toll
Authorities say at least 2,497 people have been killed in the disaster and 2,476 have been injured.
The quake is the strongest to hit the country in more than a century, and its epicentre was not far from popular tourist and economic hub Marrakech.
Guetbach knew many were not as lucky she was after escaping. ‘’After a day, I and my friends made some contacts and began to get donations, and we went to supermarkets in town to get groceries, and then we headed for the quake epicentre,’’ Guetbach said.
She was in tears at this point as she recalls the magnitude of destruction wreaked by the earthquake. ''They need help,'' she stressed, citing shortages of food, water and other basic necessities faced the vulnerable victims.
Humanitarian aid
‘’It was so moving to see that we were not alone because there were a lot of people heading there to help because it could have happened to anyone. It could have been me under those rubbles,’’ she said.
The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth, making it more destructive. Earthquakes of this size in the region are uncommon, according to the US Geological Survey, but not unexpected.
It noted that nine quakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher have hit the area since 1900.
The earthquake is Morocco’s deadliest since 1960, when a quake killed more than 12,000 people.
More than 300,000 people have been affected in Marrakech and surrounding areas, according to the WHO.
More than a thousand people have died in the province of Al Haouz, and more than 400 perished in the southwestern Moroccan city of Taroudant. Rescue operations are still ongoing.
