Morocco: Flood kills two dozen workers in illegal factory

At least 24 people have died and emergency services have rescued 10 workers from the basement as the search continues for potentially trapped survivors.


[File photo] Floods are the biggest natural disaster causing deaths in Morocco

Heavy rains flooded an underground clandestine garment factory, killing at least 24 people in the northern city of Tangier, Morocco's state news agency (MAP) reported Monday.

Firefighters have rescued 10 workers from the flooded factory in a villa cellar and moved them to a hospital.

Emergency workers are still searching for more people trapped inside.

Authorities said they had launched an investigation, as the total number of workers of the illegal factory remains unclear.

Local media reports indicate that the victims may have died after the electrics in the house shortcircuited, but authorities have not yet confirmed.

Informal labor accounts for 14% of Morocco's gross domestic product, and about a fifth of non-agricultural economic activity, according to a recent report by Reuters.
Floods pose 'main risk'

A 2016 report by Morocco’s Royal Institute for Strategic Studies considered floods as the "main risk in Morocco, in terms of numbers of victims," according to AFP.

Last month, floods in Morocco’s economic capital Casablanca killed at least four people and injured others as homes collapsed in the heavy rains.

Dozens of people were killed in a bus accident in the floods of 2010, and seven people died when heavy rains hit a soccer field in 2019.

fb/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)