Over 1,000 killed as powerful quake rocks Morocco

Marrakech: A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday night, killing more than 1,000 people and damaging buildings from villages in the Atlas Mountains to the historic city of Marrakech. The toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled to reach the remote areas hit hardest. People woken by the quake ran into the streets in terror and disbelief.

State television showed people clustered in the streets of Marrakech late at night, afraid to go back inside buildings that might still be unstable. A man said he was visiting a nearby apartment when dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet and chairs. A woman described fleeing her house after an "intense vibration.'' A man holding a child said he was jarred awake in bed by the shaking. Emergency workers looked for survivors in the rubble of buildings, their reflective yellow vests glowing in the dark.

A hole gaped in the side of a home, and a car was nearly buried by the chunks of a collapsed building in other images broadcast by local media. In Marrakech, the famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, suffered damage, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 226-foot minaret is known as the "roof of Marrakech."