Morocco rescuers race against time to pull survivors from rubble

Using heavy equipment and even their bare hands, rescuers in Morocco have stepped up efforts to find survivors of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people and flattened villages.

The first foreign rescuers flew in to help after the North African country's strongest-ever quake killed at least 2,120 people and injured more than 2,421, many seriously, according to the official figures.

On Sunday an aftershock of magnitude 4.5 rattled already-traumatised residents in the same region.

The mountain village of Tafeghaghte, 60 kilometres from Marrakesh, was almost entirely destroyed, with very few buildings still standing.

Amid the debris, civilian rescuers and members of Morocco's armed forces searched for survivors and the bodies of the dead.

"Everyone is gone! My heart is broken. I am inconsolable," cried Zahra Benbrik, 62, who said she had lost 18 relatives, with only the body of her brother still trapped.

Many houses in remote mountain villages were built from mud bricks.

In the village of Amizmiz, near Tafeghaghte, a backhoe dragged away the heaviest pieces of rubble before rescuers dug into the dusty debris with their bare hands to remove a body that appeared to be under a quilt.

Crucial hours

Citizens on Sunday rushed to hospitals in Marrakesh to donate blood to help the injured.

Morocco's interior ministry said that authorities are "mobilised to speed up rescue operations and evacuate the injured."

Spain's defence ministry said an A400 airlifter took off from Zaragoza with 56 rescuers and four search dogs headed for Marrakesh to "help in the search and rescue of survivors".

"We will send whatever is needed because everyone knows that these first hours are key, especially if there are people buried under rubble," Defence Minister Margarita Robles told Spanish public television.

In addition to Spain, several countries offered aid.

Search-and-rescue teams

President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Türkiye is ready to help quake-hit Morocco "with all means" available.

"As a country that experienced the 'disaster of the century' six months ago, we are ready to help our Moroccan brothers with all our means," Erdogan told a news conference on Sunday after the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his country has mobilised "all technical and security teams to be able to intervene when the Moroccan authorities deem it useful."

Macron, along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, African Union and European Commission, also pledged, in a joint statement, to "mobilise our technical and financial tools and assistance" to help the people of Morocco.

The United States said it also had search-and-rescue teams ready to deploy, and Pope Francis on Sunday again expressed support for those affected by the disaster.

Algeria, which has long had tense relations with neighbouring Morocco, opened its airspace, which had been closed for two years, to flights carrying humanitarian aid and evacuating the injured.