Ammon News - A powerful earthquake struck Morocco's High Atlas mountains late on Friday, killing at least 820 people, destroying buildings and sending residents of major cities rushing from their homes.

The Interior Ministry said the number constituted a preliminary death toll and that 329 people had been injured. A local official said most deaths were in mountain areas that were hard to reach.

The Interior Ministry urged calm, saying in its televised statement on the death toll that the quake had hit the provinces of Al Haouz, Ouarzazate, Marrakech, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant.

Morocco's geophysical centre said the quake struck in the Ighil area of the High Atlas with a magnitude of 7.2. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 6.8 and said it was at a relatively shallow depth of 18.5 km (11.5 miles).

The earthquake is Morocco's deadliest since a 2004 tremor near Al Hoceima in the northern Rif mountains killed over 600 people.

Reuters