Nasser Jabour, an official at the Moroccan National Institute of Geophysics, confirmed that this is the first time in a century that the center has recorded such a violent earthquake in Morocco, referring to the strong earthquake that struck the country late yesterday, Friday.

Morocco's Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported today, Saturday, that Jabour stated the aftershocks following the earthquake, which hit the Al Haouz region yesterday evening, "are of lesser magnitude and may not be felt by the population," explaining that "aftershocks lose their strength the further we move away from the epicenter of the earthquake."

He clarified that the quake, which was centered in the Igil area (80 km southwest of Marrakech), was felt in many Moroccan cities within a radius of 400 km.

He added that "the main quake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, the strongest of which reached around six degrees," noting that aftershocks are generally less powerful than the main quake.

The Moroccan Ministry of Interior announced early this morning that at least 296 people lost their lives in the earthquake that struck the kingdom with a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale.