RABAT: At least 22 people were killed and 16 others injured overnight when two adjacent buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco’s oldest cities, the prosecutor said on Wednesday. One building was unoccupied, while the second was hosting an Aqiqah, a traditional Muslim celebration marking the birth of a child, the Fez prosecutor said in a statement. The prosecutor said the death toll was preliminary and that an investigation has been opened. A statement from the local authorities said eight families lived in the building where the celebration was taking place. Both buildings had four storeys.
State-owned broadcaster SNRT News reported witnesses at the scene as saying the buildings in the Al Mustaqbal neighbourhood, a densely populated area in the west of the city, had shown signs of cracking for some time. Fez is a former capital dating back to the eighth century and the country’s third-most-populous city. — Reuters
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