Two dead, 53 injured in Casablanca buildings collapse

RABAT (Reuters) – Two people were killed and at least 53 were injured when three buildings collapsed on Friday in downtown Casablanca, Morocco’s biggest city, the state news agency MAP reported.

Rescuers used dogs to search for survivors and pull people out of the rubble of the residential buildings, each four and five floors high and set close together, after they collapsed before dawn in a neighbourhood built in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Building collapses and accidents in Casablanca are quite common and highlight the creaking infrastructure of one of North Africa’s biggest and most densely populated cities.

The state news agency gave no details on the cause of the incident.

(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi)