Haiti earthquake

Violent aftershock hits Haiti

Article published on the 2010-01-20 Latest update 2010-01-20 17:12 TU

A man runs in front of a burning building in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Photo: Reuters

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock hit Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, eight days after a 7.0 earthquake devastated much of Haiti. The tremor struck 59 km north-west of the city at 06.03 local time.

The brief but powerful aftershock is said to have lasted around ten seconds.

There are no immediate reports of casualties. However, witnesses have reported seeing already weakened buildings collapse.

Frightened survivors fled from unstable buildings into the streets, according to journalists in the nearby town of Pétionville.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to bring aid to the victims of last week's earthquake.

The Canadian military has begun clearing debris from Haiti's southern Jacmel airport, in a bid to open up a second air route into the country after aid planes were turned away from the congested Port-au-Prince airfield.

The United States has also deployed ships carrying cranes to Port-au-Prince to work on clearing access to the port. Their efforts should have the port back in operation within "a week or two", US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.

A US naval hospital also arrived off the coast of Haiti on Wednesday. The USNS Comfort will treat between 30 and 50 patients at a time.

Aid has now arrived in the town of Léogane, which was devastated in the quake but had to wait until Wednesday for substantial help.

At least 75,000 people were killed and 250,000 injured in the January earthquake, according to the Haitian government's latest estimates. France's Foreign Affairs Ministry reports that 17 French citizens died in the quake and 16 are still missing.

Thousands more have been left homeless. Around 370,000 people are living in makeshift shelter with no access to water supplies in more than 300 settlements scattered across Port-au-Prince, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated on Wednesday.

Others fled the capital to stay with friends or relatives in other areas - leaving only the poorest of the poor on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the IOM said.

Haiti needs an international programme on the scale of the United States' Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Europe after World War II, to deal with the devastation, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

A "piecemeal approach" will not suffice, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an interview on Wednesday. Instead, the world must put together "something which is much bigger to deal with the reconstruction of the country".