Morocco earthquake: Hope is fading in Talat Nyakoub where the stench of dead bodies is ‘overpowering’

The large rotary blades of a military helicopter fire up, lifting emergency supplies towards villages otherwise cut off from the world.

They’re also shuttling the injured and dead away from the epicenter.

An enormous cloud of dust engulfs dozens of survivors and emergency teams who have descended on the town of Talat Nyakoub, at the epicenter of the earthquake to dig for the living and recover the dead.

There is hope that loved ones didn’t die when the quake hit the Atlas Mountains here in Morocco, but the smell of dead bodies is at times overpowering and the grim faces of rescue workers speak volumes.

Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people gather at a newly-formed road created when the street below disintegrated.

Beneath them, groups of rescue workers operating in teams of between six and 12 dig their way through the rubble.