4 killed in home collapses as Morocco’s storms rage on

Four people have lost their lives due to house collapses amid storms sweeping through Morocco.

Emergency workers retrieved two bodies from the ruins of three houses hit by wind and torrential rain in the country’s commercial capital, Casablanca, the authorities said on Monday.

The officials said the rescuers managed to pull out one person alive, adding that at least four more people were wounded.

Meanwhile, another two deaths – a 28-year-old mother and her two-year-old child – occurred in the city of Safi 250 km southwest of Casablanca.

This comes as home collapses in July killed 23 people and injured at least 50 others. Also in July, the government said there were around 43,000 homes nationwide prone to collapse, many of them in Casablanca.

Flash floods commonly occur in Morocco. Four children lost their lives in the south of the country in September when they were washed away by floods.

In a recent heavy flooding in the country, at least 35 were killed in southern Morocco in November.

The southern province of Guelmim, which was worst affected by the floods, accounted for 24 of the fatalities, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that 214 other people had been rescued following the deadly flooding in the country.

About 130 all-terrain rescue vehicles and 335 Zodiac inflatables and other boats were used for the rescue operations, the Interior Ministry said.