Morocco mourns earthquake victims as death toll surpasses 2,000

Moroccans are mourning the victims of Friday’s rare and devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed 2,012 people and injured at least 2,059, as confirmed by Morocco’s Interior Ministry.

Casualties are expected to rise as rescue teams are struggling to find survivors trapped in the rubble of flattened villages in southwest of Marrakesh.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize air and land assets, specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital, according to AP.

The earthquake has badly damaged one of the most important historical sites in the High Atlas region, an earth-and-stone mosque built by a medieval dynasty that conquered North Africa and Spain, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.