The Nome Nugget

Shattering Earthquakes Wreck Port City in Morocco Kingdom; 1,000 Dead

CASABLANCA, Morocco, (AP) - Two massive earthquakes, fire and a tidal wave wrecked the Moroccan port city of Agadir yesterday, killing 1,000 persons and injuring an equal number, officials back from the scene reported.

The number of injured may reach several thousand when rescue workers are able to make an accurate tally, the officials said.

The reports were made after the return from Agadir of Crown Prince Mohammed V to the stricken city.

The king ordered a special command post set up outside the city to direct relief work.

"The new city of Agadir as well as the Casbah (Moroccan section) are destroyed and a mass of ruins," said one returning eyewitness. "Rescue parties are removing the dead and injured.

Most buildings are at least partially destroyed.

"In places beds have tumbled into the streets from apartments.

"I could hear buried children screaming from piles of rubble. It is destruction everywhere.

There is blood on the walls and on the streets."

U. S. and French armed forces joined in relief efforts for the city of 40,000 on the Atlantic about 340 miles south of Casablanca.

Planes flew in doctors and medical supplies. The powerful U. S 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean was alerted to send units to Agadir at full speed if the need arose.

The earthquakes an hour and 22 minutes apart were of such magnitude that measuring instruments in the Casablanca observatory were damaged. The first came at 11:41 p.m. Monday, the second at 1:03 a.m. Fires broke out while rescue work was in progress.

The tidal wave apparently dashed 300 yards into the city through the harbor, guarded by a massive citadel atop a 720-foot rock. A Spanish ship, the Avelino Correa, radioed that the dock was cut in two and all the loading cranes collapsed.

Morocco's health minister, Dr. Youssef Ben Abbes. took to the Rabat radio to appeal for blood donors. He asked full support from the people "in this terrible catastrophe."

Morocco has been an independent kingdom since 1956. Both French and U. S. forces, however, retain bases there. The United States has five bases, air and naval, which it expects to give up in the next couple of years.

The French hold bases they built up while this Northwest African territory was divided into French and Spanish protectorates and the Tangier international zone.

About 5,000 of Agadir's residents are of European extraction.

Hotels of the town, a favored tourist spot, were booked heavily last weekend.