The number of people who have died in the Morocco earthquake has risen to 2,059 people with 1,404 injured, state TV in the country has said.
Many of the fatalities after the 6.8 magnitude quake are in hard-to-reach areas south of Marrakech.
The epicentre was high in the Atlas Mountains – about 43 miles (70km) away from Marrakech, a popular tourist destination.
Reaching people in remote villages, where old, traditional buildings may be more likely to collapse, will be a key focus of the rescue effort.
More than 300,000 people in Marrakech and its outskirts have been affected, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Morocco has declared three days of national mourning and flags will be flown at half-mast.
Number of dead could climb into thousands – follow latest
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The epicentre is in the Atlas Mountains, about 50 miles south of Marrakech
One French citizen is among the dead and eight were injured, a French Foreign Ministry official has confirmed.
The French citizen died of a cardiac arrest during the earthquake, the official added.
The quake struck late on Friday, damaging buildings and sending panicked people pouring into the streets.
The number of dead could climb into the thousands, experts have told Sky News.
“Where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse resulting in high casualties,” Bill McGuire, professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London said.
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People inspect their damaged homes in Moulay Brahim, near the earthquake’s epicentre. Pic: AP
In Marrakech, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, some buildings have collapsed and big cracks now dissect a section of the medieval city’s walls.
Local television stations broadcast pictures of a fallen mosque minaret, with rubble lying on smashed cars. Others were seen screaming as they ran out of shopping centres and restaurants.
Officials are working to clear roads so ambulances and aid can reach those affected – but large distances between mountain villages mean it will take time to learn the full extent of the damage.
Local media reported that roads leading to the mountain region were jammed with vehicles and blocked with collapsed rocks, slowing rescue efforts.
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Many spent the night outside over fears of an aftershock bringing more damage.
Montasir Itri, a resident in the mountain village of Asni not far from the epicentre, said most houses were damaged – adding: “Our neighbours are under the rubble and people are working hard to rescue them using available means in the village.”
In the village of Amizmiz, rescue workers picked through the rubble.
“When I felt the earth shaking beneath my feet and the house leaning, I rushed to get my kids out. But my neighbours couldn’t,” said Mohamed Azaw.
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Rescuers in the village of Amizmiz search for survivors
“Unfortunately no one was found alive in that family. The father and son were found dead and they are still looking for the mother and the daughter.”
About 20 men including firefighters and soldiers stood on top the ruin of a house in Amizmiz as they tried to remove rubble, bits of carpet and furniture protruding from gaps between pancaked concrete floors.
Aftershocks have been reported – with men, women and children staying out in the streets, frightened of further quakes.
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Morocco hit by deadly quake
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake was at a relatively shallow depth of 11.5 miles (18km).
Friday’s earthquake was the strongest to hit Morocco in decades.
Earthquakes in North Africa are relatively rare, but a 5.8 magnitude tremor in 1960 caused thousands of deaths.
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Shake map shows the tremor hotspots. Pic: USGS
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Construction laws were changed after that earthquake, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.
“A lot of old buildings have collapsed,” Sky News’ Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir said, speaking from Johannesburg.
“Marrakech is a historic area and the earthquake is just south of the city.”
Marrakech has been an area of pilgrimage and migration for centuries, she said, with many people travelling there to visit old Sufi sites.
“At the moment on the ground, the police, the army, the firefighters, they’re all deployed trying to work as quickly and as effectively as quickly as possible.”
This is the most deadly earthquake to hit the country since 2004 – but that was “nowhere near as strong as this 6.8 magnitude earthquake”, she said.
Traditional buildings and shallow depth of earthquake make widespread damage likely
The size and shallow depth of the Morocco earthquake means it’s likely to have caused damage across a wide area.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) the 6.8 magnitude earthquake was just 11 miles below the surface.
The epicentre was in the High Atlas Mountains near Oukaimeden, around 50 miles south of Marrakech.
It’s a sparsely populated area with Amazigh, or Berber, villages.
Houses are traditionally built with mud bricks and may not have withstood the shaking. There’s also a risk of landslides on steep slopes.
The location is within the African tectonic plate, around 350 miles south of the boundary with the Eurasia plate that Europe and much of Asia sit on.
The two plates are moving around 24mm a year relative to each other.
The USGS say earthquakes on what’s called a reverse fault usually involve a slip over an area of around 20 miles long by 12 miles wide.
Large earthquakes are rare in Morocco.
In 2004 a magnitude 6.3 quake in Al Hoceima, on the Mediterranean coast, caused 631 deaths, with severe damage to the surrounding area.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria.
Morocco has not yet asked for help from other countries, a step required before outside rescue crews could deploy.
The United Nations has said it is ready to assist if needed and countries including France, Spain and Turkey and the US have offered help.
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Residents flee their homes after an earthquake in Moulay Brahim village. Pic: AP
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A man stands next to a damaged hotel after the earthquake in Moulay Ibrahim village, near the epicentre of the earthquake. Pic: AP
Algeria, which broke off ties with Morocco two years ago, said it would open its air space for humanitarian and medicalflights to Morocco.
The UK’s foreign office has received a small number of request for assistance from Britons in Morocco.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly said the UK government is “ready to help our Moroccan friends in whatever way we can”.
The government is also supporting foreign nationals in the country, he said.
Meanwhile, Morocco’s qualifying match for the African Cup of Nations has been postponed because of the earthquake.
The country’s team had been scheduled to play Liberia in Agadir, but the Moroccan football federation said the game had been postponed indefinitely.
