Collapse of two buildings in Morocco's Fes kills 22

The collapse of two buildings killed 22 people in the northern Moroccan city of Fes, authorities said Wednesday, in the deadliest accident of its kind in the kingdom in recent years.

The Fes prosecutor's office said in a statement the collapse occurred after 11:00 pm (2200 GMT), with women and children among the dead and sixteen people injured.

Locals told AFP the buildings did not meet standards as authorities only allow two-storey buildings in that area, but the two buildings had four floors each.

"I heard a loud noise around midnight, then screams," 17-year-old Bilal El Bachir said. "It was shocking. Everyone went outside and I saw what looked like a cloud of dust, and that's when I realised both buildings had collapsed."

"I don't know why it happened... but I'm sure the upper floors were illegal," he added. "And these aren't the only buildings here with illegal floors. I'm afraid this kind of incident will happen again."

The prosecutor's office said in a statement there had been a family celebration in one of the buildings at the time of the collapse while the other was unoccupied.

An investigation had been opened to "determine the real causes" of the incident, the prosecutor's office added.

By Wednesday mid-afternoon, rescue teams had completed searches for survivors, Abdelaziz Makhmakh, regional civil protection commander, told AFP.

- Deadliest in a decade -

"Construction in the area is almost anarchic, completely out of control," said 20-year-old Bilal Ben Daoued. "This is supposed to be a modern neighbourhood where plots of land were offered to rehouse families who were living in slums."

"It is very clear that the safety conditions are not being respected," he added. "The investigation needs to explain this to us, and the authorities need to take responsibility."

Local authorities said preliminary reports suggested the buildings were constructed in 2006.

Images from the pre-dawn scene showed first responders carrying a corpse in a grey body bag to waiting emergency vehicles, as residents gathered to watch the rescue efforts.

Other workers with jackhammers and pickaxes tried to dig through the rubble, at times with the help of mechanical excavators.

The official news agency MAP reported the injured were taken to Fes's University Hospital Centre.

The accident was the deadliest of its kind in a decade.

In 2014, three buildings in the western city of Casablanca collapsed, killing 23 people.

In 2016, there were two deadly building collapses within the span of a week.

One was a home in the western city of Marrakech where two children were killed, while the other was a four-storey building that killed four people and injured two dozen more.

In February of last year, five people died in the collapse of a house in Fes's old city.

Last May in Fes, nine people died when a residential building collapsed.

The structure had been listed as at risk of collapse and its occupants had been ordered to evacuate, a local authority source told AFP at the time.