Montasir Itri, a resident of the mountain village of Asni near the epicentre, said most houses there were damaged. Residents of Marrakesh, the nearest big city to the epicentre, said some buildings collapsed in the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Search teams frantically scoured collapsed buildings for those trapped. Moroccans posted videos showing buildings reduced to rubble and dust, and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakesh damaged. Known as the el-Asnam earthquake, the magnitude 7.3 event was the strongest seismic activity the region had seen in centuries.
