A four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, killing at least four people and injuring six others, local authorities said on Thursday.
The building came down in Fez, located approximately 200 kilometres east of the capital Rabat. Rescue teams and local residents were seen digging through the debris in footage broadcast by local media, as authorities said the search for additional survivors or victims remained ongoing.
State broadcaster 2M initially reported that 11 people had been killed in the collapse before issuing an official correction, bringing the confirmed death toll down to four. The discrepancy highlights the difficulties emergency responders can face in assessing casualties in the immediate aftermath of structural collapses.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the collapse, according to local officials cited by the South China Morning Post. No further details about the specific circumstances that led to the building's failure were immediately available.
A recurring problem
Building collapses have been a recurring concern in Morocco, where older urban structures in historic city centres - known as medinas - can suffer from years of neglect, inadequate maintenance, or unauthorised modifications. Fez is home to one of the world's oldest and largest medinas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where many residential buildings date back centuries.
The incident comes roughly two years after a devastating earthquake struck Morocco's High Atlas mountain region in September 2023, killing nearly 3,000 people and drawing international attention to the structural vulnerabilities of buildings across the country.
The full extent of the latest collapse, including how many people may still be trapped beneath the rubble, had not been confirmed at the time of reporting. Authorities did not provide a timeline for when the search-and-rescue operation was expected to conclude.
