CASABLANCA: The death toll after three buildings collapsed in Morocco’s largest city and commercial capital Casablanca rose to 23 on Sunday, officials said.
Fifteen bodies were recovered from the rubble in one day on Sunday, including two children.
Medics said earlier Sunday that 17 people were still being treated in hospital, while authorities warned of more buried bodies.
Rescue operations were temporarily suspended on Sunday afternoon as emergency teams sought more sophisticated equipment. Sparking anger from relatives of the missing.
“Search for bodies suspended, equipment deficient. Three days to notice it”.
It was still not known why the three apartment blocks in El-Hank district collapsed on Friday.
Residents told that the accident probably resulted from “haphazard works” on the lower floors of the buildings, as well as a general lack of maintenance.
An official inquiry has begun, and the residents of three adjoining buildings have been evacuated as a precaution.
Firemen managed to rescue at least 55 people, including six children, after the apartment blocked.
King Mohamed VI, to be in the city at that time, visited the scene of the disaster and the injured in hospital.
Casablanca has a population of around five million, with many living in squalid conditions in sprawling slums, some exposed to serious safety hazards.
Two people died at the end of 2012, when a building came down after bad weather.
The housing minister said that between 4,000 and 7,000 buildings in Casablanca were at risk of collapse.
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