Two four-storey buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fez, killing at least 19 people, according to a provisional toll reported by the country’s official news agency on Wednesday.

“Sixteen other people were wounded, with varying degrees of severity,” the Maghreb Arabe Press (MAP) agency reported, adding that search operations were still ongoing to “save other people who may be buried under the rubble”.

The two adjacent structures, which housed eight families, collapsed overnight in the major northern city’s Al-Moustakbal neighbourhood, in the Al-Massira area, according to MAP.

Images from the pre-dawn scene showed first responders carrying a corpse in a grey body bag to waiting emergency vehicles, as residents gathered to watch the rescue efforts.

Other workers, using jackhammers and pickaxes, tried to dig through the rubble, occasionally assisted by mechanical excavators. Local authorities have indicated that the toll could rise in the coming hours.

MAP reported that safety officials had conducted “necessary preventative measures”, including securing the surrounding area and evacuating neighbouring buildings. The agency added that the injured were taken to Fez’s University Hospital Centre.

The accident was one of the deadliest of its kind in recent years. In February last year, five people died in the collapse of a house in Fez’s old city.

Nearly a decade ago, in 2016, there were two deadly building collapses within the span of a week. One was a home in the western city of Marrakech that killed two children, while the other was a four-storey building that killed four people and injured two dozen more.

In 2014, three buildings in the western city of Casablanca collapsed, killing 23 people.