President Bola Tinubu on Saturday offered his condolences to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, following an earthquake that struck the village of Amizmiz, near Marrakech, Morocco.
The incident, which occurred around 11pm on Friday, claimed the lives of 1,305 persons and left 1,832 persons injured.
A United States Geological survey revealed that the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8 and an epicentre depth of 11.5 miles.
In a video posted on social media, a building was seen shaking, while people ran for safety.
Caroline Holt of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, described rescue efforts as “complicated”, saying, “This happened at night when people were maybe sleeping in bed so only this morning did we start to see the impact of the earthquake unfold.”
The Moroccan troops and emergency services had been dispatched to continue the search.
Meanwhile, Tinubu in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, described the incident as unfortunate, adding, “In the face of this adversity, Nigeria will continue to stand in solidarity with Morocco as they recover, rebuild and come out stronger than ever from this unfortunate event.”
Friday’s earthquake was described as Morocco’s deadliest since 2004 when a tremor in the northern Rif mountains killed over 600 people.
When contacted on the effort by the Federal Government to ascertain if any Nigerian was affected, the spokesperson for the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said in a message, “None has been brought to our notice till now.”
