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| Africa North |
| Eleven killed in Moroccan minaret collapse |
| 2010-02-20 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A four centuries-old mosque minaret collapsed in Morocco on Friday, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 50 worshippers, hospital officials and eyewitnesses said. Up to 80 people were trapped under the rubble and soldiers were working to reach them, said Khaled Rahmouni, a resident in the town of Meknes where the mosque collapsed. "About 300 worshippers gathered inside the mosque for the Friday afternoon mass prayers. When the imam (preacher) was about to start his sermon, the minaret went down," he said by telephone. The Lalla Khenata mosque minaret collapsed in the old Bab al-Bardiyine neighborhood of Meknes, which is about 140 km (80 miles) southwest of Rabat. Neglected old buildings in the old quarters of Morocco's cities collapse fairly often, but the fall of a minaret is rare. Insh'allah... |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Lucky that it was not an earthquake..... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2010-02-20 16:26 |
| #4 MEKNES, Morocco — Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Saturday ordered experts to check the safety of the country's historic mosques as the death toll from the collapse of a centuries-old minaret rose to 41 people, the official news agency said. The minaret fell onto a crowded mosque during prayers Friday in the city of Meknes, a UNESCO heritage site and a walled city that is a maze of winding narrow streets. Some 75 people were injured, 17 of whom arestill hospitalized, the North African nation's official MAP news agency said. A day after the accident, a police officer with a sniffer dog patrolled the site, but the main search operations appeared to have to have wrapped up. The falling tower toppled onto about three-quarters of the mosque, leaving behinds piles of rubble and sand. Officials blamed the accident on heavy rain that weakened the minaret at the Bab Berdieyinne Mosque, according to an official Interior Ministry release. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-02-20 12:35 |
| #3 CNN put the death toll at 36. |
| Posted by: Gomez Threter7450 2010-02-20 12:32 |
| #2 Up to 41. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-02-20 12:31 |
| #1 Sorry, guys, but 30 of you will have to get out right away. Fire code limits the use of this minaret to a maximum of 50 combined spotters and snipers at a time." |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-02-20 01:00 |