Tens of thousands feared dead in Haiti quake

Tens of thousands of people were feared dead on Wednesday in Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, buried beneath demolished schools, hospitals and homes, as traumatised citizens milled in streets strewn with rubble and scattered bodies.

As aftershocks continued to shake the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, residents tried to rescue people trapped under rubble, clawing at chunks of concrete with bare hands. A five-storey UN headquarters building was destroyed by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, which the US Geological Survey said was the most powerful in Haiti in more than a century.

Tens of thousands wandered dazed and sobbing in the chaotic, broken streets, hoping desperately for assistance. 

One young man yelled at reporters in English: "Too many people are dying. We need international help ... no emergency, no food, no phone, no water, no nothing."

Bodies were visible all around the hilly city: under rubble, lying beside roads, being loaded into trucks.

Asked by a CNN reporter how many people had died, president Rene Preval replied, "I don't know," adding, "Up to now, I heard 50,000 ... 30,000."

Preval did not say where the estimates came from.

The local Red Cross — used to dealing with disaster in a country long dogged by poverty, catastrophic natural disasters and political instability — said it was overwhelmed.

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking sufficient  emergency personnel and heavy equipment to move debris.

The United Nations said at least 16 members of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping mission, including 11 Brazilian soldiers, had been killed. Preval said mission chief Hedi Annabi was dead, but the world body could not confirm that.

The presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls. Preval and his wife were not inside when the quake hit.

Preval called the damage "unimaginable" and described stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped in the collapsed Parliament building, where the Senate president was among those pinned by debris.

"It's the worst I've ever seen. It's so much devastation in a concentrated area. It's going to take days, or weeks, to dig out," the Salvation Army's director of disaster services in Haiti, Bob Poff, told CNN.

Frustration was rising among Haitians faced with the prospect of spending a second night out in the open with no food or water, Poff said.

When darkness descended over the city, most of it devoid of power, the sound of loud singing rose up, as people turned to traditional hymns to try to keep their spirits up.

Lone men with sledgehammers battered at slabs of debris in collapsed buildings, trying to break through to look for survivors.

Scattered bodies were laid out on sidewalks, wrapped neatly in sheets and blankets. Voices cried out from the rubble.

"Please take me out, I am dying. I have two children with me," a woman told a Reuters journalist from under a collapsed kindergarten in the Canape-Vert area of the capital.

The quake's epicentre was only 10 miles (16km) from Port-au-Prince. About four million people live in and around the city and many slept outside on the ground, away from weakened walls, as aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 magnitude rattled the city. One strong aftershock sent guests running in panic from the already damaged Villa Creole hotel on Wednesday afternoon.

Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organisation was overwhelmed and out of medicine. "There are too many people who need help. ... We lack equipment, we lack body bags," he told Reuters.

Normal communications were cut off, roads were blocked by rubble and trees, electric power was interrupted and water was in short supply. The only lights visible in the city came from solar-powered traffic signals.

US president Barack Obama called the quake an "especially cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy and pledged swift, coordinated support to help save lives. The Pentagon was sending an aircraft carrier and three amphibious ships, including one that can carry up to 2,000 Marines.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton cut short a trip to the Pacific and defence secretary Robert Gates canceled plans to visit Australia to deal with the earthquake response.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged Obama in a telephone call to speed up efforts to help rebuild Haiti. Brazil leads a UN peacekeeping force deployed in Haiti since 2004.

The United States, China and European states were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment, while other governments and aid groups offered tents, water purification units, food and telecoms teams.

US airlines suspended commercial flights to Haiti and launched relief efforts. The quake knocked out the Port-au-Prince airport control tower. The US Air Force sent a team to restore air traffic control to allow flights to evacuate the injured and bring in supplies.

Former US president Bill Clinton, UN special envoy to Haiti, said more rescue teams and medical teams were needed.

"We need more helicopters," Clinton told CNN. "The most important thing is to get people into the (collapsed) buildings and find as many alive as possible."

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said its three hospitals in Haiti were too badly damaged to use, and it was treating the injured at temporary shelters.

"What we are seeing is severe traumas, head wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt with the level of medical care we currently have available," said Paul McPhun, operations manager for the group's Canadian section.

The University of Miami School of Medicine sent a plane full of doctors and nurses to set up a field hospital.

The World Bank pledged an additional $100 million. The United Nations said $10 million would be released immediately from the its central emergency response fund and it would organise a flash appeal to raise more money.

Experts said the quake's epicentre was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles (10km), which was why the destruction was so severe.

Witnesses saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble as the earth shook, while cars bounced off the ground.

Haiti's cathedral was destroyed and media reports said the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, had been found dead in the wreckage of the archdiocese office.

One of the city's best-known hotels, the Montana, had collapsed, said Haitian businessman Manuel DeHeusch, a tile factory owner, who added the hotel owner, his aunt, had died buried in the rubble.