Rabat – Three people died on Thursday morning after a house collapsed in the Moroccan city of Casablanca due to the heavy and storming rain that hit the region, local authorities reported.
The collapsed house was among a list of buildings that local authorities had classified as being at risk of collapsing.
The two-story house collapsed at approximately 1:30 a.m.
The tragic event shocked the residents of the Hay Al Fida neighborhood, with many demanding that local authorities find a solution to the recurring incident of houses collapsing.
The house, located in the Smara district, was classified as a dwelling in danger of ruin, according to the local authorities of the Al-Fida-Mers Sultan prefecture.
The body of one of the victims was retrieved from the rubble of a traditional oven on the first floor of the collapsed house. The two other victims, who were living in an adjacent house to the collapsed building, passed away at the hospital.
In a statement to local news outlet LeSiteInfo, one of the survivors said that the incident caused partial collapse in his house, locking him inside for a total of two hours.
He lamented the fact that the fire department took too long to come to his rescue.
There have been no further updates about the rescue mission in the past few hours.
As they complained about what they described as the alarming trend of buildings collapsing in Casablanca, many frustrated locals pointed fingers at the government and local authorities.
Unless local authorities assume their responsibility and correctly handle the crisis, they argued, the death toll from such tragedies could further grow in the coming days.
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