Death toll surpasses 2,000 from strong quake in Morocco

The office of King Mohammed VI said that he had ordered the government to rapidly provide shelter and rebuild houses for those in distress, “particularly orphans and the vulnerable,” but that certain areas were inaccessible during darkness, preventing rescue workers from reaching them until after dawn on Sunday. The king also did not clarify whether Morocco would formally request foreign assistance to allow outside rescue teams to intervene.

At least 2,012 people were killed, according to Morocco’s Interior Ministry, and at least 2,059 were injured, more than 1,400 of them critically. The quake, which had a magnitude of at least 6.8 according to a preliminary report from the United States Geological Survey, was the strongest to hit the area in more than a century.

“I never felt anything like this in my life,” said Raja Bouri, 33, who lives in the outskirts of Marrakesh. “It felt like a plane fell on me..”

The temblor was indiscriminate in its demolition, rippling through the densely populated medinas of Marrakesh and the rural villages ringing the city, where walls of earthen homes shook, cracked and collapsed. Some roads have been blocked by landslides, said Sami Fakhouri, the acting head in Morocco of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

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Local news media posted images of rubble-strewn streets and footage of people panicking as the shaking began. Some residents returned to their apartments after the quake ended, but many others in areas near the quake’s epicenter, fearful of aftershocks, spent the night sleeping on the streets.

“My husband and four children died,” one woman told Moroccan state television. “Mustapha, Hassan, Ilhem, Ghizlaine, Ilyes. Everything I had is gone. I am all alone.”

Here’s what to know about the earthquake:

• France, a former colonial power in Morocco, was among the first to offer help. The French Embassy in Morocco opened a crisis hotline and the mayor of the southern French port city of Marseille said that he would send firefighters to help with rescue efforts in Marrakesh, a sister city.

• Moroccan authorities announced three days of national mourning to honor victims of the deadly earthquake. In a statement carried by the state news agency, the office of King Mohammed VI said that after a crisis meeting with officials in Rabat, the capital, he had ordered the government to rapidly provide shelter and rebuild houses for those in distress, “particularly orphans and the vulnerable.”

• Several governments and charity groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have offered to send aid and rescue teams. Even countries with a history of conflicted relations with Morocco — like Israel and Algeria — have pledged to provide assistance. Here’s how to help.

• Marrakesh is known for its old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was founded in the 11th century and which attracts tourists with its open-air markets, uneven cobblestone streets and labyrinthine passageways.

• The precise strength of the quake was not yet fully clear. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated it at 6.8. But a Moroccan agency said it measured 7.2., which the U.S.G.S. said could be more accurate. Initial readings of magnitude are measured automatically, and need to be revised by seismologists.

Death toll surpasses 2,000 from strong quake in Morocco