A PhD researcher from the University of Oxford has spoken of the horror of the earthquake in Morocco.

More than 2,000 people were killed when the North African country was struck by a rare and powerful earthquake on Friday night (September 8).

Ella Williams who recently returned to the UK after working as an English teacher in the town of Talat N’Yaaqoub in the Al Haouz province of Marrakesh, near the epicentre of the earthquake, said seeing the events unfold was “very hard."

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She said: “I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost former students, neighbours. It’s very hard.”

The 27-year-old is part of the British Moroccan Society (BMS), a charity uniting the UK with Morocco, and has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for vital aid for Moroccans.

She said that focusing on the fundraiser is helping her to get through the loss of her friends.

Oxford Mail: A man stands next to a damaged hotel after an earthquake in Moulay Brahim village, outside

She said: “With the British Moroccan Society, we’re trying to just take action as soon as possible because these rural areas are so difficult to reach.

“We launched this fundraiser to try and really just get aid and get help on the ground as soon as possible.

“I think right now it’s a feeling of shock and that we have to take action.”

Ms Williams has also urged people to share her fundraiser to raise awareness of the situation and allow the BMS to provide aid, particularly to people in rural areas.

She said: “If people want to help and they really want to help at the grassroots level, donating or even just sharing the British Moroccan fundraiser is a really good way to help.”

Ms Williams’s fundraising page is at www.gofundme.com/f/british-moroccan-society-earthquake-appeal.

The appeal has already raised over £40,000 of a £80,000 target. 

The 6.8-magnitude quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late on Friday.

One man said dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet.

The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry not constructed to endure quakes, covering whole communities with rubble and leaving residents picking their way precariously through remains.

“There’s nothing to do but pray,” said Hamza Lamghani, who lost five of his closest friends.

People could be seen on state TV clustering in the streets of historic Marrakesh, afraid to go back inside buildings that might still be unstable.

Marrakesh’s famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, was damaged, but the extent was not immediately clear.

Its 69-metre (226ft) minaret is known as the “roof of Marrakesh”.