Morocco quake kills 229, toll may cross 300

At least 229 people died when a powerful earthquake shook northern Morocco on Tuesday, officials said, warning the death toll was likely to ...

At least 229 people died when a powerful earthquake shook northern Morocco on Tuesday, officials said, warning the death toll was likely to rise. Villages around Al Hoceima were damaged, people were still buried under the rubble of homes and the local hospital was too small to cope with the scale of the disaster, they said.

Morocco8217;s MAP state news agency put the provisional death toll at 229 with 120 injured in the worst quake to rock the North African country in more than 40 years. Of the total, 164 died in Im-Zouren. In Al Hoceima, local authorities struggled to cope with hundreds of victims.

The injured were being treated in Army barracks, in health centres and charity homes. Others were being airlifted to cities including Rabat, Casablanca and Meknes.

In the village of Im-Zouren, many houses were flattened like cardboard boxes. 8216;8216;Many people are still trapped under the rubble, we have no equipment,8217;8217; Hassan Hmidouch, head of the town council, said. 8216;8216;It8217;s a total disaster. We don8217;t have sniffer dogs or equipment to lift or cut iron bars,8217;8217; he said. Television footage showed an old man using a pocket knife to cut through a blanket that appeared to cover a body.

8216;8216;As soon as we think we8217;ve seen all the dead and injured, more keep coming in ambulances,8217;8217; said a doctor at the main Mohammed V. hospital in charge of the emergency ward.

Josephine Shields, North African delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies IFRC in Tunis, said six villages within 15 km of Al Hoceima were hit, in particular Ait Kamara.

8216;8216;Ait Kamara has been reported to be totally destroyed. We8217;ve been told that the entire affected area has between 3,00,000 and 4,00,000 people. It is a remote area, very mountainous, so it is a bit difficult to access.8217;8217;

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She said victims needed blankets, warm clothing, food and water. An Interior Ministry official in Al Hoceima said heavy equipment was badly needed in order to clear the rubble and search for survivors. But he warned access would be difficult on the narrow roads snaking at the foothills of the Rif mountains.

A civil Defence spokesman in Al Hoceima said there were many dead in Ait Kamara where most houses, like in Im-Zouren, were built of mud bricks and collapsed under the force of the tremor. Rescue operations involving Army and navy troops are on. King Mohammed cancelled appointments to supervise rescue operations. 8212; Reuters