Death Toll Climbs Past 800 due to Powerful Earthquakes in Morocco

The Epicenter of Friday’s Earthquake in the Atlas Mountains, South of Morocco, as reported by Morocco’s Interior Ministry and Ministry of Environment and Emergency Services

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said early Saturday that at least 296 people had died in the provinces near the quake. A total of 123 people were sent to hospitals for treatment. The ministry wrote that most damage occurred outside of cities and towns.

Moroccans posted videos showing buildings reduced to rubble and dust, and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakech, a UNESCO World Heritage site, damaged. Tourists and others posted videos of people screaming and evacuating restaurants in the city as throbbing club music played.

Men, women and children stayed out of the streets due to their fear of earthquakes and other shocks that could cause their homes to sway.

The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was high in the Atlas Mountains roughly 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of Marrakech. It was also near Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort.

The USGS said the epicenter was 18 kilometers (11 miles) below the Earth’s surface, while Morocco’s seismic agency put it at 8 kilometers (5 miles) down.

Beyond reports on the quake’s magnitude, neither Moroccan officials nor MAP, Morocco’s official news agency, had published any information about casualties or damages as of early Saturday. Government officials typically use the agency to communicate information about important matters.

The quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria’s Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.

How did the earthquake break down? A woman in Agadir, Morocco, said she felt fear and confusion when the death toll climbed on Saturday night

Mr. Kourkouz said he had been having dinner late on Friday when he felt a slight tremor. For a moment, he thought it was the vibrations of his washing machine. The shaking quickly got worse.

Mr. Kourkouz said that theAdrenaline took over. He rushed out of his fourth-floor apartment, down the stairs and into the street, where other residents had gathered.

Raja Bouri, 33, who lives on the outskirts of Marrakesh, said that her walls had withstood the quake but that everything in her kitchen had fallen to the floor.

In Agadir, a town on the Atlantic coast west of the earthquake’s epicenter, Jihane Maftouh, 36, said she had felt fear and confusion when the shaking started.

“My husband and four children died,” one woman told Moroccan state television. Mustapha, Hasan, Ghizlaine, Ilyes. Everything I had is gone. I am all alone.”

As the death toll continued to climb on Saturday and rescue workers scrambled to find survivors in the rubble, it became painfully clear that many had not made it through the night.

She and her mother slept outside, a choice that many residents in towns and cities near the earthquake’s epicenter, in the High Atlas Mountains, also made amid fears of aftershocks.

The shaking cracked walls, broke vases and lamps, and caused chunks of ceiling to fall to the floor, which blocked her kitchen sink and stove with dust and debris.

Ms. Bennani said that she felt afraid, because her house was made of clay bricks. “I ran out of my room screaming, asking my mother to leave.”

Yasmina Bennani was about to go to sleep on Friday night, when she heard a loud noise.