The earthquake in Morocco did not interfere with the normal flow of flights with Portugal

Friday’s earthquake in Morocco did not disrupt the normal flow of flights from Portugal to the African country or vice versa, a company source told Lusa.

“Operations are proceeding normally and there have been no interruptions or changes to connecting flights to and from Morocco,” he said.

Stressing that the earthquake “did not affect the structure of the Moroccan airport,” the source clarified that flights to “Marrakech, Fes and Casablanca from TAP, Easyjet, Ryanair and Royal Air Maroc are operating normally, whether from Lisbon or Porto.”

The death toll from the earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday evening has risen to 1,037 dead and 1,204 injured, of whom 721 were “in critical condition,” the Moroccan Interior Ministry said Saturday.

The province with the highest number of reported casualties is Al-Haouz, south of Marrakech and close to the epicenter, where more than half (542 people) have died, according to an official report cited by French news agency AFP.

Next comes Taroudant (321 dead), further south, also a mountainous countryside in the heart of the High Atlas.

The regions of Chichaoua, Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Azilal, Agadir, Casablanca and Al-Yousufiyah also reported deaths.

“Relief operations are continuing and are taking place in good conditions,” Morocco’s interior ministry said.

According to the National Institute of Geophysics of Morocco, the earthquake reached a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale and occurred in the Marrakech region (north) at 23:11 at a depth of eight kilometers.

The epicenter was in the city of Isis, located about 80 kilometers southwest of Marrakech.

A strong earthquake was felt in Portugal and Spain.