Rabat has yet to issue appeal for international aid despite powerful quake killing more than 2,000 people

Several countries have offered aid and search support after the Moroccan earthquake, but most of the rescue operation in remote mountain areas was being led by local teams and Rabat has not yet issued a broad demand for international aid.

After a powerful earthquake late on Friday night killed more than 2,000 people, Moroccan authorities this weekend made bilateral contact with certain countries whom they authorised to send expert search and rescue teams. These included Tunisia, who sent 50 paramedics and personnel from a specialised unit, as well as search dogs, advanced thermal monitoring devices, a drone to detect victims under the rubble and a field hospital. Qatar also sent a rescue team and medical crews.

Villagers bury their dead while Red Cross warns recovery may take years and other countries offer aid

Rescuers in Morocco were trying to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings on Sunday as the country began three days of mourning for victims of a disaster that killed more than 2,000 people and left many more injured and homeless.

Friday’s 6.8-magnitude quake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, had an epicentre below a remote cluster of mountainous villages 45 miles south of Marrakech, and shook infrastructure as far away as the country’s northern coast.

The death toll in Morocco has so far reached 2,000. Here is a list of some of the other most destructive quakes

The earthquake that struck Morocco late on Friday has killed more than 2,000 people, a death toll that is expected to increase as rescuers are struggling to reach some rural and mountainous areas.

Below are listed some of the deadliest earthquakes of the past 25 years.

8 September 2023: Morocco. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake kills more than 2,000 people.

6 February 2023: Turkey and Syria. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills more than 21,600 people.

25 April 2015: Nepal. More than 8,800 people are killed by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

11 March 2011: Japan. A magnitude 9.0 quake off the northeast coast triggers a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.

12 January 2010: Haiti. More than 100,000 people are killed by a magnitude 7.0 quake. The government estimated a staggering 316,000 dead, but the scale of the destruction made an accurate count impossible.

12 May 2008: China. A magnitude 7.9 quake strikes eastern Sichuan, resulting in over 87,500 deaths.

27 May 2006: Indonesia. More than 5,700 people die when a magnitude 6.3 quake hits Java island.

8 October 2005: Kashmir. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake kills over 80,000 people in the region.

26 December 2004: Indonesia: A magnitude 9.1 quake triggers an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

26 December 2003: Iran. A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits the south-eastern part of the country, causing more than 20,000 deaths.

26 January 2001: India. A magnitude 7.6 quake strikes Gujarat, killing as many as 20,000 people.

17 August 1999: Turkey. A magnitude 7.6 earthquake hits Izmit, killing about 18,000 people.

Witnesses describe how panic spread across the country when powerful earthquake struck

Amid shock and devastation that jolted people in towns and cities for miles around the epicentre of a powerful earthquake in Morocco, people across the country described paralysing fear of further aftershocks and widespread confusion.

“For the first few seconds, you don’t know what’s happening. My wife called out to me and obviously we both jumped for our daughter. My wife picked up the baby and we ran outside but we weren’t sure what we were meant to do,” said Bode Shonibare, a British-Nigerian banker visiting his wife’s family in a northern district of Marrakech, the major city closest to the epicentre.

Old city in Marrakech among areas hit in quake measuring at least 6.8 that centred on the High Atlas mountains

A powerful earthquake in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains has killed at least 2,000 people, a death toll that is expected to rise as rescuers were struggling on Saturday to reach hard-hit remote areas.

The magnitude-6.8 quake is the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years.

Earthquake measuring at least 6.8 magnitude and centred in High Atlas mountains leaves more than 1,000 dead and 1,200 injured

• Morocco earthquake: more than 1,000 dead and hundreds more injured

The US Geological Survey’s Pager system, which provides preliminary assessments on the impact of earthquakes, has issued a red alert for economic losses, saying extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread.

Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response, according to the US government agency.

We felt a very violent tremor, and I realised it was an earthquake.

I could see buildings moving. We don’t necessarily have the reflexes for this type of situation.