Powerful Haiti quake kills over 700
At least 724 people are killed and hundreds missing in a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti early Saturday, toppling buildings in the disaster-plagued Caribbean nation still recovering from a devastating 2010 quake.
The long, initial quake was felt in much of the Caribbean. It damaged schools as well as homes on Haiti's southwestern peninsula, according to images posted by witnesses.
The epicenter of the shaking, which rattled homes and sent terrified locals scrambling for safety, was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) by road west of the center of the densely populated capital Port-au-Prince.
The temblor, which was felt as far away as Cuba and Jamaica, was bigger and shallower than the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck Haiti 11 years ago, killing an estimated 250,000 people.
"Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital," 21-year-old Christella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicenter, told AFP. "Everyone is in the street now and the shocks keep coming."
The country's civil protection agency said the quake that the preliminary death toll already stood at 304, with at least 1,800 injured and more people unaccounted for. Preliminary rescue operations by emergency teams and ordinary citizens had enabled many people to already be recovered from the debris.
