Henlow friends caught up in horror of Morocco earthquake are raising funds to help rebuild the shattered country

Three chums from the Engineers Arms pub in Henlow who found themselves caught up in the horror of Morocco’s devastating earthquake last month are raising funds to go back and help rebuild the shattered country.

Callum “Lofty” Tolladay, 25, Matt Burlison , 26, and Aidan Blackwell, 25, had just landed at Marrakech when the first tremors struck sending people fleeing the airport in terror.

And instead of enjoying a climbing holiday in the Atlas Mountains, they spent the next five days sleeping rough under the open sky as they joined a massive round-the-clock rescue operation.

They used a first aid kit they had taken with them to treat injured villagers and carried one 18-year-old girl with a badly-broken leg for more than a mile on stretcher “that looked like it came from the first world war” to get her to a doctor.

Callum, a financial consultant, from Henlow, said: “The situation out there in Morocco is dreadful – the earthquake caused such tremendous destruction with up to 3,000 people being killed.

“There are the facilities to cope with it in Marrakech and the larger towns, but up in the villages and the Atlas Mountains there is nothing.

“Many people are facing a winter sleeping outside or in makeshift shelters where the temperature can drop to minus 10C, so they desperately need tents, warm clothes, blankets, sleeping bags and other supplies before the snows comes.

“We have set up a gofundme page to raise £5,000 to buy as much essential equipment as possible which we plan to take back there next month (November).”

Former soldier Aidan added: “I’ve contacted some old friends in the Rifles regiment who are pulling a few strings to get us some equipment.”

They and Mark, from Shefford, are regulars in the award-winning Engineers pub, where landlord Kevin Machin is backing their fund-raising campaign.

Callum said: “We were just leaving Marrakech airport when the earthquake struck. Suddenly there were all these weird vibrations.

“Then the building began to shake, stuff started to fall off the ceiling and everybody began screaming and running. It was pure panic mode.

“We had a hotel booked for our first night in the city before planning to go climbing in the mountains the next day. But we just dropped out bags off there and then went out to help where we could.

“While families with children were outside, roughing it and sleeping on the ground because they had nowhere to go. Nobody knew what was going to happen and many people were in bits.

“The three of us did what we could to help before going back to our hotel about 4am and grabbing a few hours sleep.”