http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?o...42DE129E06F523


Morocco Hit by Powerful Earthquake
Kerry Sheridan
Cairo
24 Feb 2004, 09:19 UTC


A powerful earthquake in northern Morocco has killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more. The tremor struck Tuesday in the early morning hours near the Mediterranean port city, Al Hoceima, some 300 kilometers northeast of the Moroccan capital.
According to seismologists in the United States and Europe, the quake measured between six-point-one and 6.5 on the Richter scale and was centered in the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Morocco from Spain.

A local official says the earthquake destroyed at least one village and caused serious damage to another. Many of the houses in the devastated villages are built of mud bricks.

Officials say Tuesday's tremor was the most severe in Morocco in ten years.