A powerful earthquake struck northern Morocco overnight yesterday, toppling houses and killing at least 300 people, local authorities said. Many of the victims were women, children, and the elderly.

　　The quake shook rural areas near the Mediterranean city of Al Hoceima, and there were deep worries about the fate of three outlying villages - Ait Kamara, Tamassint and Imzourn - where 30,000 people live in mud and stone structures unable to withstand a major natural disaster.

　　Authorities have already counted 140 deaths in Ait Kamara, and estimate a preliminary death toll of more than 300 deaths based on contacts with other villages, said a spokesman for local authorities in Ait Kamara on condition of anonymity.

　　Mohammed Ziane, a former human rights minister, said it was highly likely that most quake victims were women, children and the elderly.

　　"This is a real tragedy," said Ziane, a native of Al Hoceima. "Most people living in this area are women, children and old people. The men leave for jobs in the Netherlands and Germany."

　　The death toll climbed steadily throughout the day as rescuers began reaching the hard-hit areas and finding corpses, officials said. Some families had already buried their dead.

　　Josephine Shields of the International Federation of the Red Cross, citing civil defense officials in Al Hoceima, said Ait Kamara - a village of 6,000 - was completely destroyed.

　　"The latest we have is that roughly 300 persons are feared dead and about 600 or more injured," she said in Tunis, Tunisia. "The hospital services and health centers have been saturated."

　　King Mohammed VI, in a condolence message, promised all possible efforts in mobilizing "human and material resources" for the stricken region. The king called the temblor a "challenge of destiny."

　　Military and civilian rescuers were dispatched to the scene to help survivors and search for victims trapped under rubble, while helicopters filled with emergency supplies were being dispatched.

　　However, rescuers reported difficulties in reaching the stricken area, located in the foothills of the Rif Mountains and served by narrow, poor roads. French LCI television showed men with pick axes chipping their way through debris left by flattened buildings, while others used their bare hands to try to reach trapped victims.

　　More than 200 relief workers from the Moroccan Red Crescent are at the scene.

　　"The most urgent priority is to search for survivors and give them proper medical attention," Baddredine Bensaoud, secretary-general of the Moroccan Red Crescent, said in a statement released by the international Red Cross in Geneva.

　　France had two rescue teams of 60 people each, with dogs and other quake rescue abilities, standing by. It also had a separate reconnaissance team of four fire officials waiting for orders to be dispatched.

　　"There is enormous damage," Mekki Elhankouri, a physician at Bades clinic in Al Hoceima, told France 2 television in a telephone interview. "There were three-story buildings that crashed to the ground and are completely crushed."

　　An aftershock with a magnitude of 4.1 was felt outside Al Hoceima at 11:04am, according to the official MAP news agency. It quoted the geophysical laboratory of the National Scientific and Technical Research Center.

　　The death toll was expected to rise throughout the day, the Interior Ministry said. A physician at Mohammed V hospital in Al Hoceima told LCI there were "many deaths and many injured."

　　"Most of the injured have broken bones," he said. "Houses collapsed. It was a very, very violent jolt."

　　According to the US Geological Survey, the 6.5-magnitude quake was centered 160 kilometers northeast of Fez in the Mediterranean Sea. It occurred about 800 meters underground at 2:27am local time while many people were asleep.

　　(The Associated Press)