Girl, 10, pulled alive from rubble after earthquake but brother did not survive
The sheer horror, desperation - and hope - following the Morocco earthquake disaster was seen yesterday in a village where one in 10 people died.
Together with photographer Tim Merry, I visited remote Sidi Hssain - carved into the steep terrain of the Atlas mountains. Friday night’s 6.8 magnitude earthquake brought death and destruction in just a few seconds - with around 12 of the 120 residents killed.
We visited three days after the quake- as the total death toll rose to at least 2,681, with many remote villages still inaccessible. The scale of the destruction in Sidi Hssain is hard to comprehend.
Mother Razini and daughter Nura, 10, who was pulled out of the rubble in which her 15-year-old brother died (Tim Merry/Daily Mirror)Whole buildings crashed down the mountain side while people were sleeping in their beds. Everywhere you go all you can smell is dust and all you see is rubble. Household items like fridges, sofas and suitcases jut out of the mounds of debris where whole homes have collapsed.
Following Friday’s horror all the bodies have been recovered and buried-but the grief and shock in the village is still clear to see. We were invited to see the damage to the local mosque and several homes by Hassan Wakrim and his family.
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A family’s copy of the Quran was saved (Tim Merry/Daily Mirror)They led us through treacherous narrow alleyways - where children once played football - which are now covered in crushed concrete. We witnessed one heartbroken mum, Razini, crouching at the small crater where her 15-year-old son’s body was pulled from the devastation.
She was reciting prayers for Walid and also crying in French “morte, morte”… “dead, dead”. Thankfully an hour later it was a much happier scene as she hugged daughter Nura, 10, who was pulled alive from the rubble, suffering only minor injuries to her face and arm.
Mirror reporter Phil Cardy witnessed the devastation in the Atlas mountains (Tim Merry/Daily Mirror)Hassan’s niece, 15-year-old Meryem Hissi, was thankfully there to translate for the family. Looking at her neighbour, she said: “She’s broken. She has lost her son. But she still has her daughter. He was my friend. I had two friends who died." She told how residents of the village have family and friends who live a couple of miles down the mountain in the bustling town of Amizmiz - which was also devastated by the quake. But many still made the dangerous journey to the village to help their loved ones.
Even as we drove to the village three days after the quake it was still treacherous, with holes in the ground and boulders blocking parts of the narrow, twisting road. Meryem’s own mother, Fatima, was rescued from the rubble by her brother and cousins. “Everyone came from Amizmiz to help. Family, friends and others. Seventy homes have gone here in seconds. “People don’t know what they are going to do. Where are they going to live?“ But in other villages we know it is a lot worse, hundreds and hundreds dead.
The UK is deploying a team of search and rescue specialists, a medical assessment team, four search dogs, and rescue equipment (UK MOD Crown copyright)They need help, they must be scared. ”The family took us to the remains of Fatima’s former home. Huge lumps of concrete, twisted metal rods, shattered window frames and stray cables were all that was left of the house. Relatives were digging through the debris under the collapsed roof, trying to see if there was anything that could be salvaged.
They pulled out a candlestick and were delighted when they found a Moroccan tea glass still in one piece. But there was real joy when they found their copy of the Quran. After being carefully passed the holy book Hassan recited a passage as the family prayed.
Speaking of the quake through Meryem he said: “It happened in about 10seconds, in that time it was all gone. A lot of people are dead, children and adults, sleeping in their beds. I think eight children, four adults. There is nothing left. The village, the people, all broken. The Mosque is very badly damaged. “What we need is places where people can live. Where are people going to live?
They said the youngest child to die in the village was just three years old. All the victims are now buried in a small cemetery close to where a makeshift tented village has been erected.
While we were there the Red Crescent arrived to provide additional medical supplies and help. Meryem told us: “Everyone is now living here as one family. We are all cooking for each other, helping each other. We will all live here together,
we don’t want to leave anyone behind. Some may stay, but for how long can we live in tents? Who knows?” Foreign aid and rescue teams were also yesterday joining the efforts to find survivors amid the destroyed villages.
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We witnessed Qatari teams heading from Marrakech towards the Atlas mountains loaded with rescue equipment and supplies. Friday’s quake was Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades. The epicentre was 45 miles south of Marrakech below a remote cluster of villages.
In the city of Marrakech itself some parts of the historic medina and its network of alleyways saw significant damage, with mounds of rubble and crumpled buildings.
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