Huge 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake hits Haiti….Kills at Least 11

In a post on Twitter, Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise urged people to remain calm after the civil protection agency said the quake caused injuries and panic in northern towns.

 

HAITI has been hit by a major 5.9 magnitude earthquake which has killed at least 11 people and injured more than 100, officials said.

Several buildings collapsed after the quake struck the northwestern part of the impoverished Caribbean country shortly after 8pm on Saturday (1am BST).

The police chief for the northwest region, Jackson Hilaire, said at least seven people were killed and more than 100 injured in Port-de-Paix.

Another four people died in and around the town of Gros-Morne further south, including a boy struck by a falling building, said mayor Jean Renel Tide.

Le Nouvelliste newspaper said one person was killed when an auditorium collapsed in Gros-Morne and that detainees were released from a police holding cell that was damaged.

The tremor also damaged the facade of a church in the town of Plaisance and a house next door collapsed, the paper said.

The country’s civil protection agency issued a statement saying several people were injured and being treated in hospitals.

It also said houses were destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island – among the structures damaged was the Saint-Michel church in Plaisance.

The quake was felt in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and centred about 12 miles west-northwest off the north coast with a depth of 7.3 miles.

Haiti President Jovenel Moïse posted on Twitter: “I urge the population to keep calm, following the passage of the earthquake whose epicentre is located in the northwest coast.

“The risk management system and the regional branches of the Civil Protection are on standby to assist the inhabitants of the affected areas.”

Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant called for people to be “cautious and calm” in a post on Twitter.

Impoverished Haiti, where many live in tenuous circumstances, is especially vulnerable to earthquakes.

The 2010 disaster, which also centred in Port-au-Prince, destroyed up to 100,000 buildings and left millions homeless within the space of a minute.

With a recorded magnitude of 7.1 the earthquake caused around 50 aftershocks, killing more than 250,000 people and injuring at least 300,000.