Earthquake strikes Moroccan villages

RABAT, Morocco -- A powerful earthquake struck northern Morocco early Tuesday, toppling mudbrick and stone houses and killing at least 300 people, the Red Cross said. Many of the victims were women, children and the elderly.\nThe quake shook rural areas near the Mediterranean city of Al Hoceima, and there were deep concerns about the fate of three outlying villages -- Ait Kamara, Tamassint and Imzourn -- where 30,000 people live in mud and stone structures unable to withstand a major natural disaster.\nJosephine Shields, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said 300 were feared dead and 600 injured.\nShe said civil defense officials in Al Hoceima said Ait Kamara -- a village of 6,000 -- was completely destroyed.\n"The latest we have is that roughly 300 persons are feared dead and about 600 or more injured," she said in Tunis, Tunisia. "The hospital services and health centers have been saturated."\nThe region hit by the quake was inhabited by a large population of non-Arab Berbers.\nAuthorities already have counted 140 deaths in Ait Kamara.\nMohammed Ziane, a former human rights minister, said it was highly likely most quake victims were women, children and the elderly.\n"This is a real tragedy," said Ziane, a native of Al Hoceima. "Most people living in this area are women, children and old people. The men leave for jobs in the Netherlands and Germany."\nThe death toll climbed steadily throughout the day as rescuers began reaching the hard-hit areas and finding corpses, officials said. Some families had already buried their dead.\nKing Mohammed VI, in a condolence message, promised all possible efforts in mobilizing "human and material resources" for the stricken region. The king called the temblor a "challenge of destiny."\nMilitary and civilian rescuers were dispatched to the scene to help survivors and search for victims trapped under rubble, while helicopters filled with emergency supplies were being dispatched.\nHowever, rescuers reported difficulties in reaching the stricken area, located in the foothills of the Rif Mountains and served by narrow, poor roads. French LCI television showed men with pick axes chipping their way through debris left by flattened buildings -- while others used their bare hands -- to try to reach trapped victims.\nMore than 200 relief workers from the Moroccan Red Crescent are at the scene.\n"The most urgent priority is to search for survivors and give them proper medical attention," Baddredine Bensaoud, secretary-general of the Moroccan Red Crescent, said in a statement released by the international Red Cross in Geneva.\nFrance had two rescue teams of 60 people each, with dogs and other quake rescue abilities, standing by. It also had a separate reconnaissance team of four fire officials waiting for orders to be dispatched.\n"There is enormous damage," Mekki Elhankouri, a physician at Bades clinic in Al Hoceima told France 2 television in a telephone interview. "There were three-story buildings that crashed to the ground and are completely crushed"