19 killed in building collapse in Morocco's third-largest city

FEZ, Morocco (AP) — Two four-story buildings collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, killing 19 people in the second fatal collapse there this year, authorities said on Wednesday.

Morocco's state news agency reported the two residential buildings housed eight families. Sixteen people were injured in the collapse and sent for treatment at a nearby hospital. Authorities said the neighborhood had been evacuated and search and rescue efforts were ongoing.

It was unclear what caused the collapse or how many people were unaccounted for on Wednesday morning.

Fez is Morocco’s third-largest city and one of the hosts of this month’s Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 FIFA World Cup. It is best known for its walled city packed with medieval souks and tanneries. But beyond tourism, it’s also one of the country’s poorest urban centers, where aging infrastructure is common in many neighborhoods.

Another collapse in May killed 10 people and injured seven in a building that had already been slated for evacuation, according to Moroccan outlet Le360.

Building codes are often not enforced in Morocco, especially in ancient cities where aging multifamily homes are common. Gaps in basic services were a focal point of protests that swept the country earlier this year, with demonstrators criticizing the government for investing in new stadiums instead of addressing inequality in health care, education and other public services.

__ A previous version of this story called Fez Morocco’s second-largest city. It is Morocco’s third most populous city.

Rescue workers and residents search for survivors amid the wreckage of two collapsed buildings in Fez, Morocco, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahmed Alaoui Mrani)

Rescue workers and residents search for survivors amid the wreckage of two collapsed buildings in Fez, Morocco, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahmed Alaoui Mrani)

Rescue workers carry a body to an ambulance after recovering it from the wreckage of two collapsed buildings in Fez, Morocco, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahmed Alaoui Mrani)

Rescue workers and residents search for survivors amid the wreckage of two collapsed buildings in Fez, Morocco, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahmed Alaoui Mrani)

ROME (AP) — Italian food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and palate-pleasing tastes. On Wednesday, the U.N.'s cultural agency gave foodies another reason to celebrate their pizza, pasta and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage.

UNESCO added the rituals surrounding Italian food preparation and consumption to its list of the world’s traditional practices and expressions. It's a designation celebrated alongside the more well-known UNESCO list of world heritage sites, on which Italy is well represented with locations like the Rome's Colosseum and the ancient city of Pompeii.

The citation didn’t mention specific dishes, recipes or regional specialties, but highlighted the cultural importance Italians place on the rituals of cooking and eating: the Sunday family lunch, the tradition of grandmothers teaching grandchildren how to fold tortellini dough just so, even the act of coming together to share a meal.

“Cooking is a gesture of love, a way in which we tell something about ourselves to others and how we take care of others,” said Pier Luigi Petrillo, a member of the Italian UNESCO campaign and professor of comparative law at Rome’s La Sapienza University.

“This tradition of being at the table, of stopping for a while at lunch, a bit longer at dinner, and even longer for big occasions, it’s not very common around the world,” he said.

Premier Giorgia Meloni celebrated the designation, which she said honored Italians and their national identity.

“Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes. It is much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth,” she said in a statement.

It’s by no means the first time a country’s cuisine has been recognized as a cultural expression: In 2010, UNESCO listed the “gastronomic meal of the French” as part of the world’s intangible heritage, highlighting the French custom of celebrating important moments with food.

Other national cuisines and cultural practices surrounding them have also been added in recent years: the “cider culture” of Spain’s Asturian region, the Ceebu Jen culinary tradition of Senegal, the traditional way of making cheese in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

UNESCO meets every year to consider adding new cultural practices or expressions onto its lists of so-called “intangible heritage.” There are three types: One is a representative list, another is a list of practices that are in “urgent” need of safeguarding and the third is a list of good safeguarding practices.

This year, the committee meeting in New Delhi considered 53 nominations for the representative list, which already had 788 items. Other nominees included the Swiss yodelling, the handloom weaving technique used to make Bangladesh’s Tangail sarees, and Chile’s family circuses.

In its submission, Italy emphasized the “sustainability and biocultural diversity” of its food. Its campaign noted how Italy’s simple cuisine valued seasonality, fresh produce and limiting waste, while its variety highlighted its regional culinary differences and influences from migrants and others.

“For me, Italian cuisine is the best, top of the range. Number one. Nothing comes close,” said Francesco Lenzi, a pasta maker at Rome’s Osteria da Fortunata restaurant, near the Piazza Navona. “There are people who say ‘No, spaghetti comes from China.’ Okay, fine, but here we have turned noodles into a global phenomenon. Today, wherever you go in the world, everyone knows the word spaghetti. Everyone knows pizza.”

Lenzi credited his passion to his grandmother, the “queen of this big house by the sea” in Camogli, a small village on the Ligurian coast where he grew up. “I remember that on Sundays she would make ravioli with a rolling pin.”

“This stayed with me for many years,” he said in the restaurant's kitchen.

Mirella Pozzoli, a tourist visiting Rome’s Pantheon from the Lombardy region in northern Italy, said the mere act of dining together was special to Italians:

“Sitting at the table with family or friends is something that we Italians cherish and care about deeply. It’s a tradition of conviviality that you won’t find anywhere else in the world.”

Italy already has 13 other cultural items on the UNESCO intangible list, including Sicilian puppet theatre, Cremona’s violin craftsmanship and the practice moving of livestock along seasonal migratory routes known as transhumance.

Italy appeared in two previous food-related listings: a 2013 citation for the “Mediterranean diet” that included Italy and half a dozen other countries, and the 2017 recognition of Naples’ pizza makers.

Petrillo, the Italian campaign member, said after 2017, the number of accredited schools to train Neapolitan pizza makers increased by more than 400%.

“After the UNESCO recognition, there were significant economic effects, both on tourism and and the sales of products and on education and training,” he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE -Eugenio Iorio bakes a pizza at a restaurant in Naples, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)