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A few months ago, my friend drove through Amizmiz on holiday.

It was a lively, colourful and welcoming town, a stop-off for many who want to visit the Atlas Mountains. Now, it has been ripped apart.

Everywhere you go in Amizmiz, you smell dust and see rubble.

CCTV shows moment earthquake struck – latest updates

People carry some of their possessions as they leave their town which was damaged by the earthquake, in Amizmiz, near Marrakech, Morocco, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they mourned victims of the nation...s strongest earthquake in more than a century and sought to rescue survivors while soldiers and aid workers raced to reach ruined mountain villages. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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People in Amizmiz carrying possessions. Pic: AP

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The moment the earthquake struck Marrakech

As we drive in, the pavements are bustling with people, some of whom are now sleeping in a temporary camp just at the edge of the town.

For some, their homes are either destroyed or too unsafe to inhabit.

Others don’t want to sleep under a roof anymore.

More on Morocco

All around them is horrendous evidence of how homes can collapse straight down, crushing everything and everyone in their path.

I hear one dreadful story. A man called Dag – an Italian who moved to this town a decade ago – survived the earthquake but his brother-in-law, who was on the ground floor of his home, died when it collapsed.

Dag tells me you can still see some of his body through the ruins.

Dag says he can see some of his brother-in-law's remains in the rubble, which is too heavy for rescuers to move
Image:
Dag said he can see some of his brother-in-law’s body in the rubble, which is too heavy for rescuers to move

People shelter in tents after their homes were damaged by the earthquake, in the town of Amizmiz, near Marrakech, Morocco, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. Towns and villages throughout Morocco's Atlas Mountains are mourning the dead and seeking aid after a record earthquake wreaked destruction throughout the region last week. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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People in Amizmiz shelter in tents after their homes were damaged. Pic: AP

Nobody can recover it because they don’t have the machinery to lift the debris.

Dag’s wife, the dead man’s sister, has to walk past the site to get into town.

A man wants to show me the remains of his house.

He is clutching a small paper bag, which he says contains all the possessions he has left.

He guides me through alleys strewn with rubble and we stop at an opening.

A single rescuer, along with some local men, is trying to reach through an opening.

“The woman in there is dead,” says my companion. “It is the mother of my friend. His wife is also in there, and she is also dead.”

And he says this with almost no emotion in his voice. People in this town are running on adrenaline. Many say they simply cannot process what has happened – it is too overwhelming.

People walk and carry some of their possessions as they leave their town which was damaged by the earthquake, in Amizmiz, near Marrakech, Morocco, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. Towns and villages throughout Morocco's Atlas Mountains are mourning the dead and seeking aid after a record earthquake wreaked destruction throughout the region last week. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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Amizmiz, near Marrakech, is near the epicentre of the earthquake. Pic: AP

Dag actually smiles and wishes me good luck as he leaves, having moments earlier told me that, as well as his brother-in-law, many of his friends are dead.

“One day I will come to terms with this, but not today,” he said.

There is Fatima, blessed with a friendly face and a welcoming character but now burdened with a house that is falling apart and memories of a terrible night.

“There was so much noise, I couldn’t get out of the door. I can’t remember everything – I was in shock. My house has gone. I have lost everything and now I am living on the street.”

A paramedic stands at a junction and warns people that the street ahead is particularly perilous.

It is steep, broken and there are exposed power lines.

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Morocco: Football players donate blood

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There is no electricity here, no running water, no communications. They are cut off and exposed. And the stoicism of today may turn into anger tomorrow.

And all the time, the number of dead will go up. We ask the paramedic about the devastation in this town and he shakes his head. “We think there will be 2,000 dead,” he said. “In the whole region?”, we ask? “No, just in this one town.”

Two thousand people dead, in one town. It takes a moment to sink in.

The population of Amizmiz was reckoned to be about 20,000.

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Sky News team at quake epicentre

So that’s one in 10 people killed by the earthquake. No wonder people have trouble coming to terms with that.

I walk through the rubble. To my right is another house that has simply collapsed and I reach down and pick up some of the fragments that have turned a road into a demolition site. They crumble in my hands. These houses were not made to cope with this sort of violence.

The people inside would have had no chance. No chance at all.

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Lack of heavy rescue equipment into Gaza leaves hundreds to die slow deaths under rubble

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Lack of heavy rescue equipment into Gaza leaves hundreds to die slow deaths under rubble

It was in the evening that the bombing started to intensify.

Salah Jundia, his father and brothers huddled together in their home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City, trying to work out what to do.

It was too risky for them to leave at night. There were a lot of them too. Extended family living across four storeys. They decided they would wait until after dawn prayers.

The explosion tore through the building just before 5am, collapsing one storey on to the next.

The remains of where the family lived - where loved ones were trapped beneath the rubble
Image:
The aftermath of Israel’s bombing campaign in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City

Salah Jundia
Image:
Salah Jundia

Jundia says he survived because pieces of bedroom furniture fell on top of him.

Then he looked for his father and brothers.

“I found one of them calling for help. I removed the rubble covering him with my hands. Then I saw another brother covered in rubble but he was dead,” he told Sky News.

Jundia added: “My father was also dead. My other brother was also dead. We got them out and that is when I saw that the whole building had collapsed.”

Over the next few hours, they scrambled to rescue who they could.

An aunt and uncle and one of their children, Shaimaa. Uncle Imad and his son Mohammad. The bodies of Montasir and Mustaf.

One of the child victims of the attack on the home in Gaza City
Image:
One of the child victims of the attack on the home near the Gaza City

One of the child victims of the attack
Image:
Another one of child victims of the attack

Jundia says he could hear cries for help, but they were coming from deep in the rubble and were impossible to reach.

The rescue teams on site – civil defence they are called – did not have the kit to clear through three floors of 500 square metres, 30cm slabs of concrete.

Palestinians drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble
Image:
Rescuers drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble

Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble in Gaza City
Image:
Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble near the Gaza City

In the afternoon, Jundia says Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) told rescue teams to leave as they would be resuming their bombardment.

Jundia buried the bodies he had managed to pull out but he knew 15 of his family members, 12 of them children, were still somewhere inside the rubble, still crying for help.

He made a desperate video appeal, begging the Red Cross and Arab countries to pressure Israel to grant access to the site. It was picked up on a few social media accounts.

Israel won’t allow heavy equipment into Gaza. No diggers or bulldozers, nor the fuel or generators to run them.

They say it will fall into Hamas’s hands.

It was a major sticking point during the ceasefire and it is a major issue now as the bombardment continues, given the fact that hundreds if not thousands of civilians might survive if there were the equipment to extract them.

Members of Salah Jundia's family left alive after the attack
Image:
Members of Salah Jundia’s family left alive after the attack

Salah Jundia and his family
Image:
Salah Jundia and his surviving family

Civil defence trying to get to the Jundia family home over the next few days were halted because the IDF were in the vicinity. A family friend tried himself and was killed.

The footage that our camera teams have shot in Shujaiyya over the past two weeks shows how civil defence teams struggle to save those who are trapped and injured with the most rudimentary of equipment – plastering trowels, sledgehammers, ropes and small drills.

“The tight siege stops civil defence equipment from getting in,” says one.

They added: “So we are taking much longer to respond to these events. Time is a factor in getting these people out. So we call immediately for the necessary equipment to be allowed in for the civil defence to use.”

The IDF say they are investigating the circumstances around the Jundia family as a result of our enquiries.

In relation to the access of heavy equipment into Gaza, they say they work closely with international aid organisations to enable the delivery of humanitarian activities in accordance with international law.

The last contact Jundia had from beneath the rubble was a phone call from his uncle Ziad, three days after the strike.

“The line was open for 25 seconds then it went dead. We don’t know what happened. We tried to call, but there was no answer,” he says.

He and his family were displaced several times before they returned home to Shujaiyya – to Rafah in the south, then Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

Along the way, Jundia lost one brother and a nephew to Israeli bombs.

Read more:
Israeli air strike hits Gaza hospital
Red dye dumped into US embassy in Israel protest
Israel shot at ambulances over ‘perceived threat’

“We were happy and all the family came back. We went back to our house. It was damaged, but we improvised and we lived in it. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We are not interested in wars. But we have been gravely harmed,” he says.

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China’s economy surges, but tariffs effect is yet to be seen

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China's economy surges, but tariffs effect is yet to be seen

China’s economy performed better than expected in the first quarter of the year – but it reflects a moment in time before the explosive trade war with the US, which has seen the world’s two biggest economies effectively decouple.

Economists had predicted that gross domestic product would grow by about 5.1% in January to March, compared with a year earlier. In the end, it grew 5.4%.

But these impressive figures obscure the very serious challenges China’s economy is facing in the wake of Donald Tump’s trade war – and it is almost certain growth will not remain this strong as the year goes on.

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Bobble-headed Trump explains China-US tariffs

The worst of Trump’s tariffs came into force in April, meaning they were not reflected in these figures.

In Q1, China faced an initial 10% tariff on all its exports to the US – which was then raised to 20% from 10 March.

But Beijing had planned and prepared for taxes at that level, and thus the impact was pretty minimal.

Growth was also propelled by the fact that exporters rushed to deliver orders in bulk before the tariffs came into force.

More on China

In fact, exports surged a remarkable 12% in March compared to a year earlier, a rate that will not be sustained.

Read more from Sky News:
White House looking at new trade deals
The art of doing a deal with Trump
US and UK ‘working hard’ on agreement

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Trump Tariffs: How the 10 days unfolded

Current tariffs on goods sold from China to America stand at 145%. Trade at that price is all but impossible.

Given exports account for a fifth of China’s economy, and consumer confidence domestically is still sluggish, there will be a significant hit to come.

Experts agree China will most likely miss its annual growth target of 5% – the question is by how much.

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Palestinian man forced to abandon loved ones trapped beneath rubble after IDF warning

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Lack of heavy rescue equipment into Gaza leaves hundreds to die slow deaths under rubble

It was in the evening that the bombing started to intensify.

Salah Jundia, his father and brothers huddled together in their home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City, trying to work out what to do.

It was too risky for them to leave at night. There were a lot of them too. Extended family living across four storeys. They decided they would wait until after dawn prayers.

The explosion tore through the building just before 5am, collapsing one storey on to the next.

The remains of where the family lived - where loved ones were trapped beneath the rubble
Image:
The remains of Salah Jundia’s home in Shujaiyya, just east of Gaza City

Salah Jundia
Image:
Salah Jundia

Jundia says he survived because pieces of bedroom furniture fell on top of him.

Then he looked for his father and brothers.

“I found one of them calling for help. I removed the rubble covering him with my hands. Then I saw another brother covered in rubble but he was dead,” he told Sky News.

Jundia added: “My father was also dead. My other brother was also dead. We got them out and that is when I saw that the whole building had collapsed.”

Over the next few hours, they scrambled to rescue who they could.

One of the child victims of the attack on the home in Gaza City
Image:
One of the child victims of the attack on the home near the Gaza City

One of the child victims of the attack
Image:
Another one of child victims of the attack

An aunt and uncle and one of their children, Shaimaa. Uncle Imad and his son Mohammad. The bodies of Montasir and Mustaf.

Jundia says he could hear cries for help, but they were coming from deep in the rubble and were impossible to reach.

The rescue teams on site – civil defence they are called – did not have the kit to clear through three floors of 500 square metres, 30cm slabs of concrete.

Palestinians drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble
Image:
Rescuers drilling to try and reach the people trapped below the rubble

Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble in Gaza City
Image:
Efforts to free those trapped beneath the rubble near the Gaza City

In the afternoon, Jundia says Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) told rescue teams to leave as they would be resuming their bombardment.

Jundia buried the bodies he had managed to pull out but he knew 15 of his family members, 12 of them children, were still somewhere inside the rubble, still crying for help.

He made a desperate video appeal, begging the Red Cross and Arab countries to pressure Israel to grant access to the site. It was picked up on a few social media accounts.

Israel won’t allow heavy equipment into Gaza. No diggers or bulldozers, nor the fuel or generators to run them.

They say it will fall into Hamas’s hands.

It was a major sticking point during the ceasefire and it is a major issue now as the bombardment continues, given the fact that hundreds if not thousands of civilians might survive if there were the equipment to extract them.

Members of Salah Jundia's family left alive after the attack
Image:
Members of Salah Jundia’s family left alive after the attack

Salah Jundia and his family
Image:
Salah Jundia and his surviving family

Civil defence trying to get to the Jundia family home over the next few days were halted because the IDF were in the vicinity. A family friend tried himself and was killed.

The footage that our camera teams have shot in Shujaiyya over the past two weeks shows how civil defence teams struggle to save those who are trapped and injured with the most rudimentary of equipment – plastering trowels, sledgehammers, ropes and small drills.

“The tight siege stops civil defence equipment from getting in,” says one.

They added: “So we are taking much longer to respond to these events. Time is a factor in getting these people out. So we call immediately for the necessary equipment to be allowed in for the civil defence to use.”

The IDF say they are investigating the circumstances around the Jundia family as a result of our enquiries.

In relation to the access of heavy equipment into Gaza, they say they work closely with international aid organisations to enable the delivery of humanitarian activities in accordance with international law.

The last contact Jundia had from beneath the rubble was a phone call from his uncle Ziad, three days after the strike.

“The line was open for 25 seconds then it went dead. We don’t know what happened. We tried to call, but there was no answer,” he says.

He and his family were displaced several times before they returned home to Shujaiyya – to Rafah in the south, then Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

Along the way, Jundia lost one brother and a nephew to Israeli bombs.

Read more:
Israeli air strike hits Gaza hospital
Red dye dumped into US embassy in Israel protest
Israel shot at ambulances over ‘perceived threat’

“We were happy and all the family came back. We went back to our house. It was damaged, but we improvised and we lived in it. We have nothing to do with the resistance. We are not interested in wars. But we have been gravely harmed,” he says.

Continue Reading

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