EARTHQUAKE DEATHS MAY RISE TO 6000

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29145, 4 March 1960, Page 11

EARTHQUAKE DEATHS MAY RISE TO 6000

Rescuers Still At Work In Agadir

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) AGADIR, March 3. The mass exodus from this city of wreckage and suffering was stepped up today as weary rescue parties continued combing the ruins in the faint hope of finding more survivors of Monday’s disastrous earthquake. No official casualty figures have yet been issued as rescue workers concentrate on saving, caring for and feeding the living rather than tabulating the dead and missing.

But King Mohammed V was told yesterday that the number of dead would probably reach 5000 or 6000, with another 5000 injured.

Throughout last night—two days after the earthquake and tidal wave that sent proud new buildings crumbling into rubble —rescuers were still patiently sifting .the masonry and prying at girders and fallen walls. They might still rescue people from being buried alive. They worked in the light of powerful battery lamps and with electricity supplied by generators flown in by United States Air Force transport planes. Few of the city’s 50,000 inhabitants of 48 hours ago remain within the municipal limits today, and those who are still in the city are camping in the streets because they are afraid to stay inside buildings. Many have been encouraged by officials to move out so that a quick start can be made on rebuilding the city. The authorities also fear epidemics. There is no electricity or Vater. Security forces are ringing the city to prevent looting. About 3000 trained sanitary workers are caring for people camped along the roads outside the city. They are also taking steps to prevent the outbreak of epidemics in the city. Rats running about the streets and through the debris are a major threat to health. French aircraft are flying in a shipment of anti-tetanus serum I Exhausted surgeons, their gowns covered with blood, converse in English, French and Arabic as they work. Moroccan citizens are being driven north in dust-covered cars to Mogador, Casablanca and Rabat, where they are being lodged in army camps while their homes are rebuilt.

Many of the hundreds of foreign tourists who had filled the luxury hotels were flown north to Casablanca where they caught planes for home or received treatment in hospitals. According to the American Associated Press, burial ceremonies for the dead outside the city have been kept simple—almost furtive. Shrouded bodies were simply thrown into mass graves and covered with quicklime. A priest gave absolution to the European victims with only sur-

viving relatives present. Rows of Moslems worked side by side to dig a long trench for 75 bodies awaiting burial in a field. The job of rebuilding Agadir will be gigantic. The white-walled resort city of 40.000 has become a jumble of destruction. Many buildings were jammed downward as though crushed by sledgehammer blows. One structure had collapsed vertically, its floors tiered like a layer cake. The searchers pound hopefully on huge chunks of masonry. They listen, silently, for the cries of relatives who might be trapped below. Rescue of American Mrs Sue Martin, the wife of an American Air Force officer, was rescued last night after being trapped in the wreckage of a hotel for 38J hours. She is the wife of Lieutenant Gerald Martin, who refused to be evacuated from Agadir until he knew she was safe. Mrs Martin was saved by French and American marines who pulled her from the wreckage of the Saada Hotel after digging a 6ft hole through the rubble. Lieutenant Martin said he, .his wife and child were spending a holiday at the hotel, and all three were buried in the earthquake. “My wife was brushing her teeth. I was lying across the bed. My daughter was asleep,” he said. “Then I felt as. though I was getting dizzy. The next thing I knew I was in the dark, calling my wife. She told me she couldn’t move, but she was all right. “My daughter began to cry. I managed to crawl to her bed and th«Jn I dug at the place where the door used to be. I finally saw a small light coming through the tons of debris. I managed to dig a hole and called for help. Some French marines heard me,” he said.

The marines were afraid to use the hole he had dug. They reached Mrs Martin from another angle.

The Queen has sent a message of sympathy to King Mohammed. A message of condolence has also been sent by the Foreign Secretary (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) to the Moroccan Government.

The Queen's message said: “I have heard with deep sorrow of the earthquake which has occurred in Agadir I wish to express to your Majesty my sympathy for the victims and their families and for the suffering which has been inflicted on your people and country.”