The Moroccan authorities pledged to "define responsibilities and arrange sanctions," following an accident on Monday that killed 28 people who drowned in an unlicensed textile factory that was flooded with rainwater.
Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani affirmed - in a message of condolence to the families of the victims - that "responsibilities will be determined and the necessary sanctions will be arranged, as there are Moroccans whose lives have been lost and it is not possible to pass what happened.
The accident occurred on Monday morning, when heavy rain flooded the garage of a house in a residential neighborhood in Tangiers, in the north of the country, which housed a "secret" textile industry.
The death toll rose to 28, most of them women, according to an AFP correspondent, citing a source in the local authorities in Tangiers, on Tuesday.
The burial of the victims began Monday night, while the authorities closed the house where the tragedy was, as part of a judicial investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
The regional commander of the civil defense in Tangiers, Abdel-Rahim Kabbaj, explained to the Moroccan Channel 2 news that "the water suddenly flooded the closed space where the victims found themselves trapped without any relief outlet, which led to their death by drowning."
For its part, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights in Tangiers stated that the factory was specialized in "producing shirts for international brands in an underground garage of 150 square meters and 3 meters and a half meters deep."
On Monday, parliamentarians from the majority and the opposition condemned "the existence of such secret places" and "a lack of respect for the rights and safety of workers," stressing the need for a "full investigation and arranging all responsibilities."