Robin and his girlfriend were in Morocco during the earthquake: “The stairs moved like rubber”
Robin and his girlfriend were in a riad on Friday evening, a kind of B&B in the historic center of Marrakech. They had just gone to sleep when the earth began to shake.
“Like a piece of rubber”
“Suddenly the bed started to shake and slide,” Robin testifies. “Then we also saw the wall shifting back and forth and we quickly realized it was an earthquake. When I walked down from the room I tried to hold the stairs – everything was moving and I looked for support: the stairs were moving as one piece rubber.” (read more below the photo)
The couple fled through a narrow alley to Marrakech’s large central square, where they spent the night. “People who came out were often covered in dust and had a white face, abrasions and a bloody face,” Robin testifies.
Panic
“There was a lot of panic. There’s not much you can do at that moment. It’s the little things: cleaning wounds with tissues. I was impressed by what had happened and I didn’t sleep all night because of the adrenaline.”
The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale is the strongest in Morocco in 120 years. Aid is difficult to come by, especially in the remote Atlas Mountains in the middle of the desert. Entire villages are in ruins, rescuers are still searching for survivors.