Morocco rescuers dig with bare hands as foreign aid sent

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People are still trying to find loved ones. Most buildings were completely destroyed
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In remote mountain villages south of Marrakesh rescuers are battling to find survivors after Friday night’s deadly earthquake.

They’ve been using their bare hands as the authorities struggle to send equipment up rubble-strewn roads, and some villages lie in ruins.

The official death toll stands at more than 2,100, but there have been repeat warnings that this is likely to increase as the scale of the devastation gets clearer.

Frances Mao, Laurence Peter and I are here to keep you informed – including with the latest material sent to us by our correspondents on the ground.

BBC’s Tom Bateman reports that many people have spent a third night out in the open and we’ve seen rubble strewn across streets of collapsed homes.

“Some of the villages are completely wiped out. Here in Moulay Brahim, many, many homes are destroyed.

“I was just talking to one man who is living with his wife in a van with a tent outside. He said that they’ve already pulled 40 bodies out of the rubble – which involves local residents digging themselves with their bare hands.

“A big problem is getting the machinery up to this very remote region.

“We’ve just made the drive from Marrakesh. As we tried to get to this village, one road was completely blocked.

“Some aid is getting to these parts but a lot of it is being delivered by charities. These areas are going to be extremely hard to get to.

“Many residents are saying it still seems very slow and uncoordinated in terms of the local response.”