The United Nations has announced its readiness to assist the Moroccan government following a powerful earthquake that struck the country, according to international news reports.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, stated in a press release, “The Secretary-General was deeply saddened to learn of the earthquake that struck Morocco and claimed the lives of hundreds of people.”
The statement further expressed the Secretary-General’s solidarity with the government and people of Morocco during these challenging times. It extended the Secretary-General’s sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and wished a swift recovery to those injured.
According to the Moroccan government, the number of people killed by the earthquake has exceeded 600, while the number of injured is over 300.
The earthquake also destroyed vast parts of Marrakech, a renowned tourist destination with a population of around 840,000.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said that the earthquake was the strongest tremor to hit that part of the North African nation in more than a century.
The earthquake struck in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountain range, approximately 72 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, shortly after 11 pm local time at a relatively shallow depth of 18.5 kilometers, according to the USGS.
Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) reported on Saturday that their monitoring stations were even able to detect the quake in Egypt, thousands of kilometers away.
