Hopes were fading of finding survivors in the rubble of a powerful earthquake that struck Morocco, as rescue efforts stretched into a fourth day on Tuesday with the death toll surpassing 2,900.
The quake on Friday night, with a magnitude of at least 6.8, was centered in the High Atlas Mountains not far from the major city of Marrakesh. It was the most powerful to strike that area in at least a century, flattening fragile mud brick houses in the poor, rural villages that were the hardest hit.
Morocco’s government has drawn some criticism for what has been seen as a sluggish response and a seeming reluctance to accept a deluge of offers to send in expert international teams and aid. But a government spokesman pushed back against that criticism late on Sunday, saying the authorities “were working to intervene quickly, effectively and successfully.”
But King Mohammad VI, who calls the shots on all the most important matters of state in Morocco, and other authorities have released little information since the earthquake struck, updating casualty figures infrequently and making few public statements.
Ordinary Moroccans, many of them frustrated at the government’s response, have begun their own makeshift relief efforts to send donated aid. On Tuesday morning, the roads winding through the Atlas Mountains remained largely empty of rescue crews, but civilian vehicles loaded with water, food and blankets sped toward the devastation.
In another stricken area of southern Morocco around the city of Taroudant, cars and trucks packed with supplies prepared to begin the ascent into the mountains from a gas station. The impromptu aid convoy has been going nonstop since Saturday, residents said.
“People from all over Morocco have come to help,” said Said Boukhlik, a local.
Farther north, the roads outside of Marrakesh are now dotted with hastily built tent cities housing people displaced by the quake. In Marrakesh itself, many are still sleeping in parking lots next to their cars or on the grass along the roadside, either because their homes were damaged or because they were afraid of aftershocks.
“The streets have collapsed,” said Erez Gollan, an Israeli paramedic with the relief group United Hatzalah, who was surveying the damage in the mountainous region southeast of Marrakesh that was hard-hit. “Buildings of clay and stone have been wiped out, people are living in the streets — these are sights that are difficult to comprehend,” he added.
In the Atlas Mountain town of Ouirgane, an aid operation was in full swing: Trucks stacked with bedding had arrived and people had begun setting up sturdy tents. Patients hurried to a newly erected mobile health clinic as ambulances and a team of British rescue workers raced past.
But many villages — and scores of survivors — remain beyond the reach of rescue teams. Emergency workers have faced steep terrain marred by roads glutted with rubble and torn up by the quake. On Tuesday, the Moroccan military published footage of a Chinook helicopter dropping aid packets in isolated areas.
“A few more relief teams have begun arriving, but they haven’t reached the highest villages,” Mr. Gollan said.
Mr. Gollan said the window of time to save those trapped under the rubble was rapidly dwindling. Others dwelling in the improvised tent camps were at risk of disease and heat exposure, he warned.
The death toll reached at least 2,901 on Tuesday with more than 5,530 injured, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. The toll is expected to rise further as residents and relief workers dig through the rubble. The bulk of the deaths were concentrated in the mountainous, rural Al Haouz region just southeast of Marrakesh.
About 300,000 people were affected by the quake, according to the United Nations. The authorities have urged caution in the coming days as aftershocks — including a 4.2 magnitude tremor on Sunday — continue to ripple through the area.
Aid workers on Tuesday carried on digging out victims from under the ruins of towns nearly wiped out by the disaster. Some, including British and Spanish aid workers, used rescue dogs trained to sniff out survivors trapped under the rubble.
As of Tuesday, some governments and aid groups said they were still waiting for Morocco to give them permission to enter the country — even as rural hospitals were overwhelmed.
Survivors, many living in the far-flung towns high up in the Atlas Mountains, say running water, cellular service and stable electricity remain scarce. Many say they have waited fruitlessly for days for government aid workers to reach the disaster zone.
The relief efforts are a race against the clock. Experts say the first three days after a deadly earthquake are a critical window for rescuing survivors. And dozens of countries, including the United States, were quick to offer aid in the aftermath of the quake.
But Morocco has officially accepted assistance only from Britain, Spain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Interior Ministry, although some teams operated by nonprofits like Doctors Without Borders have entered the country.
Governments are sometimes reluctant to accept too much help for fear it cannot be coordinated effectively, said Mark Lowcock, who served as the top relief official for the United Nations from 2017 to 2021. Governments are also sometimes unwilling to accept help because it could signal to their own populations that they can’t cope, he added.
“Search and rescue can save lives in the first few days, and there are occasional miraculous examples of people surviving under collapsed buildings for a week or a bit or more,” Mr. Lowcock said. “The first 72 hours are crucial. So speed is of the essence.”
Aida Alami contributed reporting from Marrakesh, Morocco, and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London.
