Article has been updated to state 632 people killed. Unreal.
Updated again to more than 800. Jesus…
The death toll keeps raising. More than 600 killed according to The Guardian. :(
It says most of the deaths are in the mountains, epicentre was Imlil. If the damage is that bad in Marrakesh I can't imagine how devastated the mountain towns and villages will be. I did a trek in that area of the Atlas range some years back and the valleys were amazing. Groves of cherry and walnut trees, terraced fields with an ingenious irrigation system, clusters of simple mudbrick houses.
Oh damn.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
RABAT, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck Morocco's High Atlas mountains late on Friday, killing at least 296 people, destroying buildings and sending residents of major cities rushing from their homes.
Pan-Arab al-Arabiya news channel reported that five people were killed from one family, citing unnamed local sources.
The Interior Ministry, in its televised statement on the death toll, urged calm and said the quake had hit the provinces of Al Haouz, Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant.
The earthquake is Morocco's deadliest since a 2004 tremor near Al Hoceima in the northern Rif mountains which killed over 600 people.
In Marrakech, some houses in the tightly packed old city had collapsed and people were working hard by hand to remove debris while they waited for heavy equipment, said resident Id Waaziz Hassan.
Footage of the medieval city wall showed big cracks in one section and parts that had fallen, with rubble lying on the street.
The original article contains 544 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Holy shit.
I hope your family and friends are ok if they're in the area
Isn't Morocco known for being a tight labyrinth of walkways, old buildings and stairs all made of block. It seems like the worst place to have an earthquake.
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