Three days of national mourning have been declared in Morocco after an earthquake killed more than 2,000 people.
The full death toll of the most powerful quake to hit Morocco in 120 years will not be known until rescuers complete the challenging journey to the remote mountain villages that were the hardest hit.
The UK said it was ready to assist in any way needed while France, Spain and Israel offered to help with the search and rescue. Roads near the quake's epicentre were jammed with vehicles and blocked with collapsed rocks, local media reported. The USGS said the epicentre was 18 kilometres below the Earth's surface, while Morocco's seismic agency put it at 8 kilometres down. In either case, such shallow quakes are more dangerous."The UK stands ready to support our Moroccan friends," the Prime Minister wrote on social media, in a message that echoed that of Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.Though earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa, a magnitude 5.
National Institute of Geophysics' head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning, Lahcen Mhanni, told 2M TV that the earthquake was "exceptional"."It is the strongest earthquake recorded in the region."
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