Two buildings collapse in Fez, several killed
Rabat: At least 22 people were killed and 16 others injured overnight when two adjacent buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco’s oldest cities, the prosecutor said.
One building was unoccupied, while the second was hosting an Aqiqah, a traditional Muslim celebration marking the birth of a child, the Fez prosecutor said in a statement.
The buildings were reduced to piles of rubble.Credit: AP
The prosecutor said the death toll was preliminary and that an investigation has been opened.
A statement from the local authorities said eight families lived in the building where the celebration was taking place. Both buildings had four storeys.
A survivor, who lost his wife and three children, told local Medi1 TV early that rescuers had been able to retrieve one body, but he was still waiting for the others.
SNRT News footage showed rescue workers and residents digging through the rubble.
Rescue workers and residents search for survivors amid the wreckage of two collapsed buildings.Credit: AP
“My son who lives upstairs told me the building is coming down. When we went out, we saw the building collapsing,” an old woman wrapped in a blanket told SNRT News, without giving her name.
State-owned broadcaster SNRT News reported witnesses at the scene as saying the buildings in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, a densely populated area in the west of the city, had shown signs of cracking for some time.
