British family describe Morocco earthquake terror as they fled crumbling hotel and spent night sleeping outside: ‘We grabbed our four-year-old and ran as the walls were cracking’

A British mother described her family’s terror at being caught in Friday’s Moroccan earthquake, which forced them to flee their ruined hotel and spend the night sleeping outside.

Carina Williams, 43, was on holiday with her husband and son in Marrakech when they were caught in the devastating earthquake which has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

The mother from Treorchy, Wales, had just put her four-year-old son Logan to bed at the Aqua Mirage hotel when she says a “loud thud” was heard before the walls began to shake and crack, and the decor fell apart. fell from the walls.

Carina and her family ran out and waited for the terror to pass, but were allegedly left to spend the night on the floor with no direct communication from their TUI travel agency or their “useless” holiday representative.

Carina claims they looked for the TUI member on Saturday morning, but he was “rude” and “very arrogant”, walking away from guests while being questioned.

Left: Cracks are seen on the side of a building after Friday’s earthquake in Morocco. Right: People are seen sleeping on loungers next to a pool at a hotel near Marrakech.

The employee also allegedly informed tourists that it was safe to return to their building, even though no inspection was carried out to check the structural safety of the hotel, while photographs showed cracks in the walls.

Carina added that the staff then gave them the option of staying at the hotel, moving to another block – even though there were not enough rooms – or flying home.

Desperate to get home, Carina says she tried to urgently contact TUI but was told there were no flights available.

Carina alleges that other family members in the UK had attended their local TUI branch, but that staff were not informed of the disaster until Saturday morning.

The family now claim to have received no refund for the loss of their holiday after their traumatic experience.

Speaking to Carina today, he said: ‘We returned home on a repatriation flight on Saturday night. We were supposed to be there until [Monday].

‘We had returned to our room around 10:30-10:45 pm because our little one was tired. We had literally just put him to bed when we heard this terrible thud.

‘Block one we were in began to shake profusely and tilted forward, throwing my companion towards the balcony doors and then back into the room.

“That’s when everyone started shouting, ‘It’s an earthquake.’

“Things were falling, the bathroom light was going off, cups were falling off the furniture.

‘Then we grabbed our son and ran out of the building as fast as we could. The walls were cracking, tiles were falling off the walls, the stairs were shaking and everyone was screaming.

‘Fortunately we got out safely and there were hundreds of people everywhere, but not a single representative in sight. The staff had no idea what to do; “Everyone was panicking.”

“When things started to calm down, it was just word of mouth that people were told to stay outside at night,” he said.

“No one physically came to us and told us anything, they just let us sleep on the spot without any additional information.”

The family says a TUI staff member allegedly informed tourists it was safe to return to their building, despite no study being carried out to check the structural safety of the hotel, while photographs showed cracks in the walls.

People are seen camping out on sun loungers at the hotel, while the patio around the pool appears to have been damaged by the earthquake.

Pictured: Cracks are seen in the walls of the Moroccan hotel where Carina and her family were staying when the country was hit by Friday’s powerful earthquake.

On Saturday morning, the mother said they “went to find the TUI representative and to be perfectly honest he was unhelpful, rude and very arrogant.”

She said the representative “would walk away from people when they tried to talk to him and kept saying, ‘I’ll let you know when I do,'” she recalled.

‘Fortunately, we had incredible family support at home, so the TUI stores were headed straight to relatives, who apparently had not been informed of the earthquake until that morning.

“Throughout the day, we went back and forth, calling TUI, chasing the representative, but nothing. No communication at all.

‘Block one we were in took the brunt of the impact along with the dining area.

“Then at around 2 or 3pm the TUI representative told us the building was safe and we could return to our rooms as they and management had walked around and had a look.

‘People weren’t happy because how can they say it’s structurally safe without a full study? We sent pictures to the home of a family member whose job that is and he was advised not to re-enter the rooms because it was not safe for him.

“Then they gave us options to stay, move blocks or fly home. Once again, this was all a disaster, as there weren’t enough spaces to move everyone.

“The TUI helpline told us that there were no flights leaving and no other flights available; This continued for hours.

More than 2,800 people have died in the earthquake, the deadliest to hit Morocco in more than six decades. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred Friday night in the High Atlas Mountains, with the epicenter 45 miles southwest of Marrakesh.

Finally, between 6.30 and 7pm we spoke to another couple who had just been informed that there was a flight at midnight.

“Overall, TUI was shit throughout the entire process.

‘It was horrible. Honestly, we fly with TUI all the time, but in absolutely terrible times of crisis, they don’t send us anything at all.’

TUI has been contacted for comment.

More than 2,800 people have died in the earthquake, the deadliest to hit Morocco in more than six decades. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred Friday night in the High Atlas Mountains, with the epicenter 45 miles southwest of Marrakesh.

The earthquake has wreaked destruction and devastation in the country, where the number of dead and injured continues to rise after rescue teams pulled out people alive and dead in villages that were reduced to rubble until Monday.

Of the 2,862 deaths reported as of Monday, 1,604 occurred in Al Haouz, a region with a population of around 570,000, according to Morocco’s 2014 census. In certain villages such as Tafeghaghte, residents say more than half died of the population.

Clay and adobe villages built on mountain slopes have been destroyed.

Most of the dead have already been buried. The government reports 2,501 injuries.

Friday’s earthquake was the strongest to hit Morocco in more than a century. Although tremors this powerful are rare, they are not the country’s deadliest: just over 60 years ago, Morocco was rocked by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that killed more than 12,000 people on its western coast and collapsed the city of Agadir. , southwest of Marrakech.

A worker looks through the rubble after a deadly earthquake in Talat N’Yaaqoub in Morocco on September 12, 2023.

A woman enters a damaged building inside the Medina following a powerful earthquake in Marrakech, Morocco, on September 12, 2023.

That earthquake caused changes in building regulations in Morocco, but many buildings – especially rural houses – are not built to withstand such force.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there has not been an earthquake of magnitude greater than 6.0 within 310 miles of Friday’s quake in at least a century.

Northern Morocco experiences earthquakes more frequently, including magnitude 6.4 tremors in 2004 and magnitude 6.3 in 2016.

Elsewhere this year, a magnitude 7.8 tremor that shook Syria and Turkey killed more than 21,600 people. Most of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history have had a magnitude greater than 7.0, including a 2015 tremor in Nepal that killed more than 8,800 people and a 2008 earthquake that killed 87,500 in China.