STORY: Buildings turned to rubble in Marrakech, after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake stuck Morocco late on Friday (September 8).
Hundreds of people were killed in the country’s deadliest quake in nearly 20 years.
A mosque minaret had fallen in Jemaa al-Fna Square, in the heart of Marrakech’s old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Rescuers removed debris and searched for survivors, as they waited for heavy equipment to arrive.
Some houses in the tightly packed old city had collapsed and parts of the medieval city wall had cracked or fallen.
Residents spent the night in the open – some on pool deckchairs – afraid to sleep indoors.
The quake’s epicenter was further south in the High Atlas mountains.
Officials say most of the dead are in hard-to-reach mountain areas.
The United Nations said it stood ready to help the Moroccan government.
The earthquake is Morocco’s most destructive since 2004, when a tremor in the northern Rif mountains killed more than 600 people.