Spain has sent a plane with 56 rescuers and four search dogs to quake-hit Morocco after it received a formal request for help from Rabat, according to the defence ministry.

An A400 military plane took off from a base in the northeastern city of Zaragoza with the team bound for Marrakesh to “help in the search and rescue of survivors of the devastating earthquake suffered in our neighbouring country,” the ministry said in a post on X, formerly called Twitter.

The rescuers belong to Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit, a body of the armed forces that was created to intervene quickly in emergency situations such as forest fires, floods and earthquakes.