The death toll remains unclear
A earthquake that registered 7.2 on the richter scale has cause ‘several’ deaths in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, which shares an island with the Dominican Republic, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry has said it has cause ‘enormous’ damage, though the death toll remains unclear at the moment.
Photos and videos circulated on social media showed buildings destroyed by the earthquake and people trapped under rubble.
The worst struck area was 12km (7.5 miles) from the main city of Saint-Louis du Sud, with the effects felt as far as the capital Port-Au-Prince, 125km away.
“Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital,” Christella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicentre, told AFP news agency.
Breaking: Multiple hospitals are overwhelmed with patients following magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Haiti. (Via Le Nouvelliste) https://t.co/f8JFjQJR0r
— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) August 14, 2021
“Slowly, strongly and for very long seconds the earth shook in Haiti on 14 August, 2021 around 8:30 am,” Frantz Duval, editor-in-chief of Haiti’s Le Nouvelliste newspaper tweeted on Saturday morning.
Gran Ri Vil Jeremie pic.twitter.com/RBPStzMOxE
— JCOM Haïti (@JCOMHaiti) August 14, 2021
The nation of Haiti is still recovering from a severe earthquake in 2010 that killed over 200,000 people.
