Collapse of two buildings in Morocco's Fes kills 19

Rabat: Two four storey buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fes, killing at least 19 people, according to a provisional toll reported by the co...

Rabat: Two four-storey buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fes, killing at least 19 people, according to a provisional toll reported by the country's official news agency on Wednesday.

“Sixteen other people were wounded, with varying degrees of severity,” the MAP agency reported, adding that search operations were still ongoing to “save other people who may be buried under the rubble.”

The two adjacent structures, which housed eight families, collapsed overnight in the major northern city's Al-Moustakbal neighbourhood, in the Al-Massira area, according to MAP.

Images from the pre-dawn scene showed first responders carrying a corpse in a gray body bag to wait emergency vehicles, as residents gathered to watch the rescue efforts.

Other workers with jackhammers and pickaxes tried to dig through the rubble, at times with the help of mechanical excavators.