Family meal cut short, 8-year-old excited for new school year dies

Hamid ben Henna had just asked his young son Marouane to fetch a knife to cut a melon for the family’s evening meal when Morocco’s quake hit on Friday night. With the weekend beginning, they had been enjoying a lamb and vegetable tagine stew and Marouane had been telling his father what materials he would need for the coming school year. “That’s when it struck,” Ben Henna said. He and his other son staggered out of the open door into the alleyway as their house began to collapse. They managed to free his wife and small daughter. But as the dust settled they saw that Marouane had not made it. The eight-year-old had run further into the house and was lying under a meter of rubble. His little body was only recovered the next day. Reuters