At least 19 people have died and 16 others were injured after two residential buildings collapsed in the historic Moroccan city of Fes, state news agency reports confirmed on Wednesday.
The four-storey structures, located in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, were home to eight families. Local media said children were among the victims.
Emergency responders, including police and civil protection teams, quickly arrived at the scene to search for survivors and recover bodies from the debris. The injured were transported to the university hospital centre in Fes for treatment.
Authorities have not yet provided details on what caused the collapse, and investigations are expected to follow as rescue efforts continue.
In February of last year, a house collapse in the historic center of Fes claimed five lives. The incident echoed earlier tragedies: in 2016, two separate structural failures occurred just a week apart. One involved a home in Marrakesh where two children were killed, and the other a four-storey building that left four people dead and injured more than twenty others.
By 2023, authorities had flagged over 12,000 buildings in Marrakesh and surrounding areas as structurally at risk, according to local media. Some officials have linked this widespread vulnerability to the powerful earthquakes that struck the region that same year, suggesting the tremors may have further compromised already fragile constructions.