The death toll from Morocco’s devastating earthquake has risen to 2,497, the interior ministry said on Monday, as search and rescue efforts continue.
According to the AFP, another 2,476 people were injured, the ministry said, updating a previous toll of 2,122 dead and 2,400 wounded.
Moroccan soldiers and aid teams in trucks and helicopters battled Monday to reach remote mountain towns devastated by a monstrous earthquake.
Moroccan officials have so far accepted government-offered aid from just four countries — Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates — and some foreign aid teams said they were awaiting permission to deploy.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry says officials want to avoid a lack of coordination that “would be counterproductive.”
The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake, made more dangerous by its relatively shallow depth.
Most of the destruction and deaths were in Al Haouz province in the High Atlas Mountains, where homes folded in on themselves and steep, winding roads became clogged with rubble. Residents sometimes cleared away rocks themselves.
People cheered when trucks full of soldiers arrived Sunday in the town of Amizmiz. But they pleaded for more help.
“It’s a catastrophe,’’ said survivor Salah Ancheu in the town where mountainside homes and a mosque’s minaret collapsed.
“We don’t know what the future is. The aid remains insufficient,”the 28-year-old said.
