A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.8 has hit central Morocco and local media say it has killed dozens of people.
The epicentre was in the High Atlas Mountains, 71km (44 miles) south-west of Marrakesh, at a depth of 18.5km, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake struck at 23:11 local time (22:11 GMT). Unverified video clips on X (formerly Twitter) show damaged buildings and rubble-strewn streets.
People are seen fleeing in alarm. One official says at least 296 have died.
Some buildings in Marrakesh’s old city have collapsed, one resident told the Reuters news agency. Several clips on X show buildings crashing down, but the BBC has not identified where they were.
Locals are said to have decided to stay outside their homes in case the city is rocked by powerful aftershocks.
Another man in the historic city described feeling a “violent tremor” and seeing “buildings moving”.
“People were all in shock and panic. The children were crying and the parents were distraught,” Abdelhak El Amrani told the AFP agency.
He said power and phone lines were down for ten minutes.
AFP also reported that one family was trapped in the collapsed rubble of a house – and that a number of people in the city were taken to hospital.
The quake’s epicentre in a remote area of the High Atlas Mountains was relatively shallow – and tremors were also reportedly felt in the capital Rabat, some 350km away, as well as Casablanca and Essaouira.
Simple buildings in mountain villages near the epicentre may not have survived and, being remote, it may take some time to determine casualties there.
