Finns have made about 50 travel declarations in Morocco and more are likely to come.
Ambassador of Finland to Morocco Marjaana Sall tells STT that he woke up to a devastating earthquake in his official residence. The Finnish embassy and the residence of the head of the mission are located in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, which is more than 300 kilometers from Marrakech. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Atlas Mountains, about 70 kilometers southwest of Marrakech.
– Here in Rabat, the situation seems to be just fine. I was sleeping and woke up around 11pm to the house shaking, the windows swinging and the doors moving properly. I thought there was a storm outside. It went by pretty quickly. I have no information that there were any aftershocks or anything else here in Rabat, Sall tells STT by phone.
According to information from the Moroccan authorities, the number of victims of the earthquake has increased during the morning. According to Salli, there is currently no information that Finns are among the dead or injured.
Based on media reports, there would have been damage to buildings in the Medina of Marrakech’s old city.
– We have an honorary consul in Marrakech. The representative office was in contact with him in the morning, and at that point he was outside his apartment waiting for the situation to be clarified.
follows the destruction and rescue efforts of the Moroccan earthquake in this article
About 50 travel announcements made, maybe more to come
According to Salli, about 50 travel notifications have been made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but that means that there are more Finns in the country, as there can be several people in one notification. Consular Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jussi Tanner told the message service X (formerly Twitter) that according to the embassy’s estimate, there are about 200 Finns in the country.
– There will probably be more of those announcements all the time. Our message to Finnish tourists and others in Morocco is that they should follow the instructions of the local authorities, make a travel declaration, be in contact with their relatives and tell them about their own situation, says Sall.
The embassy has been in contact with some Finns in Morocco and the embassy has also been in contact.
– Their situation has been ok. But the situation lives on all the time and we are working through it in cooperation with other Nordic countries and colleagues, and we keep in touch and follow the instructions and information of the local authorities.
The center of the earthquake in the Atlas Mountains is a difficult-to-access terrain, and Marrakech is the nearest large city.
Read more:
Kati Komulainen was paying the dinner bill in Marrakesh when the whole house started shaking: “For a moment I thought the floor would collapse from under me”
Such is the earthquake-ravaged Marrakesh