The victims of the earthquake that devastated Morocco , south of Marrakech, have risen to 2,012. But there is no peace in the country: this morning a new earthquake of magnitude 3.9 shook the earth at 9:59 local time (10:59 in Italy).
Meanwhile, she raced against time to try to save the lives trapped under the rubble . “The next 24-48 hours will be crucial,” recalled Caroline Holt, director of operations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. A man was pulled alive in Moulay Brahim , a village in the Atlas Mountains among those particularly devastated by the earthquake. In Gueliz, the neighborhood born under the French protectorate, the buildings withstood the earthquake.
In Marrakech alone, says the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are 300 thousand people waiting for help : thousands of people, for fear of returning to the houses left standing, spent the night in makeshift camps, outside the walls of the Medina. And while Morocco observes three days of mourning from today, the aid machine has started. The Italian Red Cross has opened a fundraiser on its website to help the Moroccan Red Crescent to help the population so tragically affected by the earthquake. Spain and Tunisia are also in the field. According to seismologist and former professor at the Mohammed V University of Rabat, Taj-Eddine Cherkaoui, it is " unlikely that there will be new tremors ". "After an earthquake of this power - he claims - we cannot expect similar phenomena in the short term".
(Unioneonline/vf)