More than 304 people have been killed and 1,800 injured after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday.
The epicentre of the quake was about 78 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said, and widespread damage was reported. Many people are also reported missing.
Declaring a month-long state of emergency, Prime minister Ariel Henry said he was sending aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.
He said some towns were almost completely razed and the government had people in the coastal town of Les Cayes to help plan and co-ordinate the response.
He said: “The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble."
“We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people.”
Haiti’s civil protection agency said that the death toll stood at 304 and that search teams were on their way to the area.
Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble and thousands of injured people have been taken to hospitals, which are overwhelmed.
Mr Henry said the International Red Cross and hospitals in unaffected areas were helping to care for the injured, and appealed to Haitians for unity.
He said: “The needs are enormous. We must take care of the injured and fractured, but also provide food, aid, temporary shelter and psychological support."
Philippe Boutin, 37, who lives in Puerto Rico but visits his family annually in Les Cayes, said his mother was saying morning prayers when the shaking began, but was able to leave the house.
The earthquake, he said, coincided with the festivities to celebrate the town’s patron saint, adding that the hotel was probably full and the small town had more people than usual.
He said: “We still don’t know how many people are under the rubble."
Humanitarian workers said information about deaths and damage was slow coming to Port-au-Prince because of intermittent internet availability.
Also complicating relief efforts was gang activity in the seaside district of Martissant, just west of the Haitian capital.
“Nobody can travel through the area,” Ndiaga Seck, a Unicef spokesman in Port-au-Prince, said by phone, “We can only fly over or take another route.”
The reports of overwhelmed hospitals come as Haiti struggles with the pandemic and a lack of resources to deal with it.
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