Deadly 6.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Morocco, Killing Over 820 in Marrakech Region

The magnitude 6.8 earthquake was felt in Marrakech around 11 p.m. on Friday. Provisional toll: more than 820 dead and hundreds injured. Alia, a Toulouse resident on vacation in the ochre city with her sisters, recounts how they experienced this tremor. "We were in our room at the Riad, we were about to go to bed and we felt a strong tremor. It lasted several seconds, but those were seconds that seemed very long. We had the impression that the ground was going to give way under our feet. It caused a little panic in the Riad where all the tourists came out of their rooms. We didn’t really know what we should do..." she explains to France Bleu Occitanie.

And she adds: "It’s the first time I’ve experienced an earthquake so it was strange. We found ourselves in the street from 11:30 pm with not much, half in pajamas with a bottle of water and our passports that we had the presence of mind to recover anyway. And since then we’ve been in the street." Moroccan families have shown solidarity with these tourists. "They are there like us, since last night. Some have brought blankets, pillows. They have set up little camp beds everywhere, on the road, on the sidewalks. But the people are quite nice. With my sisters, we didn’t plan much. We really left quickly, with sneakers. And there are people who came to lend us blankets, lend us little sheets so we could settle in," Alia continues.

The Toulouse resident and her sisters are scheduled to board a flight to France tonight. "We can’t wait to get back, because we’re still in the uncertainty of a second aftershock."