Spain is sending more rescue teams to Morocco as search crews work to find any remaining survivors from a powerful earthquake that struck south of Marrakech on Friday.
Spain said late Monday it was adding teams with 31 specialists, 15 search dogs and 11 vehicles.
The Moroccan government said Monday the death toll had increased to at least 2,862 people, with another 2,500 people injured.
Komenan N’guessan Leon, an artist living in Morocco, told VOA that following the earthquake, many people have been sleeping outside amid fears of another quake.
“Now people sleep in the street, they go to the garden to sleep because they are afraid of–they think maybe the house can fall on them and they think maybe everything can begin again.”
Elisabeth Myers, a lawyer and North African political analyst who lives in Morocco, told VOA the earthquake collapsed complete villages and that landslides made many areas inaccessible.
“There’s a lot of devastation and a lot of people who are now just homeless,” Myers said. “They literally have nothing, just the clothes on their back when they ran out of those houses, the ones that survived.”
Myers highlighted the risks people will face with no shelter as seasonal weather changes take hold.
“After an incredibly hot summer, the nights are now beginning to be cooler, but I think the real the real danger is going to happen in another month or two when the weather gets cold and we still have people who are going to be homeless because there’s literally nowhere for them to go,” Myers said.
Emmanuel Victoire Ngapela and Carol Van Dam contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters