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| - Foreign tourists in Morocco scrambled to leave Friday after the country announced further movement restrictions as part of a state of emergency to combat the spread of coronavirus. The state of emergency -- declared on Thursday -- tightened domestic travel restrictions that had been imposed on Tuesday, by introducing a requirement to secure an official document to move inside the country. "Both flights previously advertised for today... are now FULLY BOOKED. We are working hard to try and make further arrangements," a post by the UK Embassy in Morocco's Twitter account read on Friday. "In three days my team has brought in 41 flights and taken out 7801 passengers", British Ambassador to Morocco Thomas Reilly tweeted the day before. Morocco had on Sunday suspended all commercial international flights "until further notice", although special trips were authorised to repatriate stranded tourists. Images on social media showed Casablanca airport packed Friday as passengers waited for flights. The US Embassy in Morocco announced on Twitter early Friday that the US was organising special flights from Marrakesh for its citizens and permanent residents, adding that passengers had to cover the cost. Almost 140 special flights negotiated by France had left since last Friday, carrying 24,000 passengers -- around two-thirds of them French -- a diplomatic source in Rabat said. Some foreign tourists were still trying to pass through the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, a local diplomatic source said, but only Spanish travellers returning home were authorised to take the ferry for Spain. The number of reported coronavirus cases in Morocco has jumped from eight to 66 in a week, with three deaths. Morocco welcomed nearly 13 million tourists in 2019, according to official figures. sof/lg/dwo
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