Hundreds killed as massive earthquake wreaks havoc in Haiti

The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said, and widespread damage was reported.

Haiti's civil protection agency said that the death toll stood at 304 and that search teams would be sent to the area. Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble, the agency said Saturday afternoon on Twitter. It said injured people were still being brought to hospitals.

The epicenter of the quake, which shook homes and sent people scrambling for protection, was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) by road from the center of the densely populated capital Port-au-Prince.

"Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital," Christella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicenter, told AFP. "Everyone is in the street now and the shocks keep coming."

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country and said he would not ask for international help until the extent of the damages is known. He said some towns were almost completely razed and the government had people in the coastal town of Les Cayes to help plan and coordinate the response.

“The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble,” he said. “We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people."

He said the International Red Cross and hospitals in unaffected areas were helping to care for the injured, and appealed to Haitians for unity.

The long, initial shock was felt in much of the Caribbean. It damaged schools as well as homes on Haiti's southwestern peninsula, according to images from witnesses.

Residents shared images on social media of the ruins of concrete buildings, including a church in which a ceremony was apparently underway on Saturday in the southwestern town of Les Anglais.

The USGS issued a tsunami warning, saying waves of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) were possible along the coastline of Haiti, but it soon lifted the warning.

A magnitude-7.0 quake in January 2010 transformed much of Port-au-Prince and nearby cities into dusty ruins, killing more than 200,000 and injuring some 300,000 others.

More than a million and a half Haitians were made homeless, leaving island authorities and the international humanitarian community with a colossal challenge in a country lacking either a land registry or building codes.

Rebuilding incomplete after 2010 quake

The quake destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, as well as administrative buildings and schools, not to mention 60 percent of Haiti's health-care system.

The rebuilding of the country's main hospital remains incomplete, and nongovernmental organizations have struggled to make up for the state's many deficiencies.

The latest quake comes just over a month after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home by a team of gunmen, shaking a country already battling poverty, spiraling gang violence and Covid-19.

Police say they have arrested 44 people in connection with the killing, including 12 Haitian police officers, 18 Colombians who were allegedly part of the commando team, and two Americans of Haitian descent.

The head of Moise's security detail is among those detained in connection with the plot allegedly organized by a group of Haitians with foreign ties.

Police have issued wanted-persons notices for several other people, including a judge from Haiti's highest court, a former senator and a businessman.

Moise had been ruling the impoverished and disaster-plagued nation by decree, as gang violence spiked and Covid-19 spread.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)