Following the catastrophic earthquake in Morocco, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has addressed concerns regarding Luxembourgish nationals, especially around the tourist-populated area of Marrakesh.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn responded to the catastrophic earthquake in Morocco in an RTL interview on Saturday morning.

Thus far, no Luxembourgish nationals have reported to have become victim of the quake, explained Asselborn. At the same time, he acknowledged that the area around Marrakesh draws in a lot of tourists around this time of year.

If you are in the area and need help, you can contact the Luxembourg Consulate in Morocco by phone (+352 2478 2300) or by email (assistance.consulaire@mae.etat.lu).

The Luxembourg Honorary Consul also reported on Saturday morning that the airports in the region are open, meaning repatriations can be organised if necessary. However, as of Saturday afternoon, no such plans have yet been announced.

According to Minister Asselborn, information from the scene is still being evaluated, so he deemed it premature to answer concrete questions about individual cases. Nevertheless, he expressed his condolences to the victims of the earthquake on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Upon enquiry by RTL, the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) reports that so far no assistance requests were made via the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). A permanent monitoring system is currently in operation, which analyses all requests and coordinates them with other European emergency services.

Luxair has also reacted to the earthquake and reported that there is no direct flight connection to Marrakesh at the moment. The only destination is currently Agadir, where 152 travellers of the Luxembourg airline (146 adults and six children) are located. However, local sources report there is no damage recorded in Agadir. The travellers are scheduled to return to Luxembourg on Wednesday.