Huge devastation found in remote regions after Morocco quake

1. Rescuers are scrambling to find survivors under the rubble after a huge earthquake which killed more than 2,100 people
2. The epicentre was in a remote mountainous region south-west of Marrakesh, where entire villages have been flattened
3. The Moroccan army has cleared one of the main roads to the worst-affected areas, allowing vital assistance to reach people
4. BBC correspondent Nick Beake reached one village where he found an elderly woman wailing after 18 bodies were recovered in a single place
5. There was also significant damage in the popular tourist city of Marrakesh, and tremors were felt in the capital Rabat and in Casablanca
6. Fearing aftershocks, many Moroccans have opted to stay outdoors for a second night, sleeping on the streets

A scramble to get aid to isolated communities

Reuters

We'll be closing our live coverage of the ongoing aid efforts in Morocco shortly. Thanks for joining us.

Here's a quick roundup of the situation on the ground:

• The death toll from Friday's earthquake has risen to over 2,100, with 2,400 more injured
• Rescuers are scrambling to save people in isolated communities in the High Atlas mountains, with aid deliveries hampered by blocked roads
• Many people in devastated villages are reporting a lack of vital supplies, including of food, water and shelter
• Tents have been set up in some areas, while many people are responding to calls to donate blood
• But assistance is arriving in places, after the Moroccan army cleared a key road from Marrakesh to the mountains early in Sunday
• The historic city has also been badly hit by the earthquake, with some estimates putting the number of people affected in the Marrakesh area as high as 300,000

If you'd like to stay updated with the race to save people, the main news story is available here.

Our reporter Nick Beake has also visited a village almost entirely destroyed by the earthquake, and you can watch his report on the rescue efforts here.

The page today has been written by Ece Goksdef, Farouk Chothia, Adam Durbin, Laurence Peter and Frances Mao, and edited by Alexandra Fouché, Lauren Turner, James FitzGerald and Henri Astier.

Stricken communities burying their dead

Alice Cuddy

Reporting from the High Atlas Mountains

In a small village in the High Atlas Mountains, locals tell us around 100 people have died.

In a cemetery surrounded by fallen houses in the centre of the community, crude graves covered with sticks and stones mark out those killed in the earthquake.

Gravediggers are preparing more.

People here tell us they haven’t received any official support and are left to find and bury the dead themselves.

BBC

People using their hands to search for survivors

Kathy Long

Reporting from Amizmiz

BBC

It’s chaotic scenes in Amizmiz, a town in the foot of the High Atlas Mountains - around 14 miles (22km) from the epicentre of the earthquake

People are digging with hands and shovels to rescue buried possessions, homes and of course, people.

Some residents are relying on water tanks for drinking supplies. And everywhere there are stories of how people suffered as the earthquake shook them and their homes.

One woman told us: "Everything came down upon our heads. Everything was shaking. We were terrified.”

Like so many others across this region, she and hundreds of her family and friends spent the night on the street - fearing further aftershocks or buildings collapsing.

BBC

And everywhere there are stories of how people suffered as the earthquake shook them and their homes.

One woman told is: "Everything came down upon our heads. Everything was shaking. We were terrified.”

Like so many others across this region, she and hundreds of her family and friends spent the night on the street - fearing further aftershocks or buildings collapsing.

Student loses contact with family in mountain village

Nawal Ait Idmou, a student at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, feels helpless after losing contact with her family in the Atlas Mountains.

Her relatives are without electricity and unable to charge their phones. She says she "has to be strong" until she hears from them.

"People are dying, people we know, like our friends, and we can't do anything for them," she tells the PA news agency.

The 20-year-old says she spoke to her family on Sunday morning, but by the afternoon they had stopped replying and "no-one knows what's happening".

She adds that little aid is getting to through because of blocked roads and heavy traffic.

In the mountains where my family lives, it is so bad. The houses are destroyed and engineers and doctors aren't there. No one can go there.

There is traffic and all the people are waiting for (engineers) to fix the roads so they can go through diversions."

WATCH: Nearly half of one village confirmed killed

In the village of Tafeghaghte, where 90 people are confirmed to have died and many more are missing, search dogs have been sniffing through the rubble.

In the video below, our reporter Nick Beake is whispering because rescuers are listening closely for any signs of life in the wreckage.

But hope of finding more survivors is fading, given the catastrophic collapse of buildings not built to withstand an earthquake of such magnitude.

Morocco: Inside village with 90 people dead after quake

US 'standing ready' to aid Morocco, Biden says

Reuters

President Joe Biden has said the US is ready to help Morocco and his "friend" King Mohammed VI if needed.

Speaking during a visit to Vietnam, Biden opened his remarks by expressing sadness at the "loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake".

He added that US officials are working "expeditiously" with their Moroccan counterparts.

"We are working to ensure American citizens in Morocco are safe, standing ready to provide any necessary assistance to the Moroccan people as well."

'People are suffering and aid is late'

Survivors in Amizmiz have spoken about the lack of food, water or power available to them after the earthquake - with aid supplies arriving late and inadequate

The situation in the village, located in the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains near the epicentre of the earthquake, is dire and there are not enough tents to house everyone.

One man told reporters: "People are suffering and aid is late. Some are stuck in roads some lack food and shelter.

"We are 12 or 13 in the tent including kids and parents."

Reuters

One woman said her group had just one tent for 24 people. They were told by local authorities that another was needed to fit everyone in.

"They said they will give us a spare one when available," she told reporters.

Moroccans donate blood and food for quake victims

Getty Images

Moroccan people donate blood for earthquake victims in Beni Mellal

Moroccan media outlets have reported that citizens have responded widely to calls to donate blood.

The state-affiliated 2M TV channel reported from one hospital in Casablanca on Sunday, showing a crowd of people queuing to donate blood.

The channel said the “pictures spoke for themselves," reporting that medical professionals were working around the clock to collect donations for the injured.

In the capital Rabat, volunteers were collecting bread from bakeries for those in need, Hespress newspaper reported.

One baker told the website that “calls have been launched for all bakeries to mobilise in this period of emergency”, whilst some bakeries had decided not to open altogether, due to the "panic" caused by the earthquake.

Death toll rises to 2,122 - state TV

The death toll from Friday's earthquake has risen to 2,122 people, according to Moroccan state TV as reported by Reuters news agency.

The number of injured has also risen to 2,421 people.

'At the moment, it's just about saving lives': West Midlands aid workers head to Morocco

Vanessa Pearce

Reporting from Coventry

FGRF

Aid workers from the West Midlands are among those making their way to Morocco to help the thousands affected.

Birmingham-based Syed Muhammad Faisal Sami, head of Faizan Global Relief Foundation UK (FGRF), says he is set to arrive on Monday.

"Lots of people are in need and many people are waiting for us," he says.

"Because we have experience of this in Turkey and Syria and other places, we have an idea of what they need," he adds.

"Hopefully tomorrow, we will start our distribution."

Volunteer Mohammed Sameer Hussain says there will be some co-ordination of the work between aid workers and local teams and volunteers.

"They've told us that at the moment, it's just about saving lives," he says.

"Our main focus... when we get there tomorrow is to find out what the immediate need is, and go and distribute and give that aid to the people."

In pictures: Rescue efforts continue

Rescue efforts are continuing in Marrakesh and in the mountain villages worst hit by the earthquake.

Help from abroad is on the way too. Spanish and Qatari teams have been sent to join the rescue operations.

Reuters

Staff from the Qatari International Search and Rescue Group can be seen on board a military cargo plane headed to Morocco

Getty Images

Firefighters in Spain on Saturday prepare to travel to Morocco on a mission to find people trapped under the rubble with the help of dogs

AFP

People rescue a donkey trapped under rubble in the mountain village of Tafeghaghte

'Aid supplies are arriving'

Reuters

Aid arrives in the village of Moulay Brahim in the mountains

The Moroccan army has cleared one of the main roads to the areas worst affected by Friday's earthquake, allowing vital assistance to reach people.

A landslide had blocked the road to the small town of Asni in the Atlas mountains earlier. Now, some help is getting through to the affected areas.

Food aid was delivered to the village of Moulay Brahim, which is near the epicentre.

A local official, Mouhamad al-Hayyan, told reporters that some aid trucks had arrived in town:

“Aid supplies are arriving, whether from the government or aid from civil society organisations," he is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"What we can see now with this aid is food supplies, provided by the government to help people affected by the earthquake.”

WATCH: Man narrowly escapes building collapse

CCTV footage from Marrakesh on Friday night shows a man's narrow escape from a collapsing building.

In the clip - which we've published below - he can be seen sprinting down an alleyway, as debris begins to fall around him.

Morocco earthquake: CCTV footage shows man narrowly avoiding building collapse

UK charity prepares to send team of aid workers to Morocco

David Wightwick from medical aid charity UK-Med is due to be part of a specialist team of aid workers which is deploying from the UK to Morocco on Monday.

Wightwick tells the BBC their priority will be to reach the remote areas up in the Atlas Mountains which have been badly affected by the earthquake.

"We will look at how we can bring healthcare there," he says, adding that he and his colleagues will assess whether it is possible to deploy big field hospitals.

He also says the United Nations is co-ordinating rescue efforts from international organisations wanting to provide help in Morocco.

"We are also in negotiations with the local ministry of health, hospitals and local communities," Wightwick adds.

People brought to makeshift tents outside closed hospital

Alice Cuddy

Reporting from Amizmiz

BBC

Officials tell us the local hospital in Amizmiz is empty, deemed too structurally unsafe to take in patients.

Instead, people are brought to makeshift tents erected outside. Ambulances race to the area and patients are carried in or brought on wheelchairs.

We just watched as a body was brought to the site on a stretcher, covered in a sheet.

An official at the hospital, who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorised to speak to the media, just told us around 100 bodies were brought there on Saturday.

“I was crying because there were so many dead people, especially the young children,” he said.

Since the earthquake I haven’t slept. None of us have.”

Moroccan official

'Aftershocks may last for days or weeks'

Rémy Bossu - director of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, based in France - says what caused the earthquake is the collision between tectonic plates that carry the European and African continents.

Speaking to the BBC, he says: "The African plate is moving in collision to the Eurasian plate at a speed of 2mm in a year."

So it is not unusual to have large magnitudes of earthquakes.

When asked about possible aftershocks, he says they are not "possibilities", but "certainty".

"We observed 20 aftershocks that were felt, there are many more that have not been felt. There will be others, it may last for days or weeks."

Bossu warns about the weakened buildings up in the mountains:

"Especially in the mountains, people have to be very careful because the buildings may have been weakened by the previous shocks. So if there is any doubt, people should not go back to their houses."

Mint tea served to Marrakesh tourists amid destruction

Anna Holligan

Reporting from Marrakesh

Police officers and contractors are coordinating the clean-up inside the Medina, the old city in the heart of Marrakesh.

Crumbled bricks, ceramics and tiles have been scraped off the dusty, but once again bustling, streets of the Jemaa el-Fnaa square.

The restaurants and souks (markets) are back in business, with sweet mint tea served to tourists taking photos of the destruction they feel fortunate to have survived.

BBC

WATCH: Devastation in quake-hit mountain areas

We've put together a video showing the impact on some of the worst-hit areas of southern Morocco, which have become the focus of the rescue efforts.

Al-Haouz, Amizmiz and Asni are among the places in and around the High Atlas mountains that have been partially destroyed.

Morocco earthquake: Videos show what's left of rural areas struck

'There’s no help coming from outside'

Alice Cuddy

Reporting from Amizmiz

BBC

I’ve just arrived in the village of Amizmiz in the High Atlas mountains, not far from Marrakesh.

As we drive through the streets, we hear a woman screaming at the side of the road. She is surrounded by loved ones propping her up and supporting her.

Traffic is congested, and as we slowly make our way through, we pass buildings on either side reduced to rubble. Others have deep cracks running through them.

There are tents at the side of the road for people who have lost their homes.

In a car park in the centre of the village, dozens of people are sleeping on rugs laid on the ground.

BBC

Abdelkarim Brouri, 63, tells me the walls of his house have partially fallen down. “I can’t go back home,” he says.

He tells us his community needs more support as he pleads for a tent.

We’re helping each other. There’s no help coming from outside.”

Abdelkarim BrouriAmizmiz resident

Unesco to help Morocco assess cultural damage

AFP

The UN cultural agency Unesco says it will help Morocco assess damage to heritage sites and work out a repair strategy.

Marrakesh's old city - which was heavily affected by Friday's earthquake - is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Unesco's regional head Eric Falt said it was necessary for plan for the reconstruction of damaged cultural assets.

Marrakesh is the main gateway for tourism into Morocco. The city was expected to host 13 million visitors in 2023 - as many as it did in the years before the Covid pandemic.