Flood kills dozens in Morocco underground factory

 Rescue workers recover 24 bodies from Tangier property and rescue 10 survivors, state media reports.

At least 24 people have been killed after heavy rain caused a flood in an illegal underground textile workshop in a private house in Morocco, the state news agency reported.

Rescue workers recovered 24 bodies from the Tangier property and rescued 10 survivors who were taken to hospital, the MAP agency said on Monday, citing local authorities.

One government official at the scene said 25 people had died, 17 women and eight men, all aged between 20 and 40, according to a local journalist contacted by AFP news agency.

News footage from the site, broadcast on Moroccan television, showed emergency services carrying corpses out on stretchers under the eyes of clearly traumatized residents, as a stream of ambulances rushed to the scene.

Workers were saved thanks to a local resident who helped them out of the flooded basement with a rope, according to the journalist contacted by AFP, who spoke to witnesses.

Local media outlets indicated at least some of the victims may have been electrocuted as the incoming water interfered with power facilities, but officials had not confirmed this.

An inquiry has been launched to determine the cause of the accident and those responsible, the MAP agency added.

Morocco’s informal labour sector represents about a fifth of non-agricultural economic activity and labourers often work in unsafe conditions.

“How can dozens of workers enter the garage of a residential building for years… without the local authorities noticing?” asked local rights group the Northern Observatory for Human Rights.

Morocco registers some 2,000 deaths each year due to work-related accidents, “one of the highest figures” in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).

The North African country has experienced heavy rains in recent weeks, after a long period of drought.

In early January, the inclement weather caused several dilapidated buildings to collapse in Casablanca, the country’s economic capital, causing at least four deaths, according to local media.

Poorly maintained drainage systems often exacerbate flooding in cities.

Fifty people died in floods in 2014 caused by heavy rains in the south of Morocco.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES