The strong earthquake in Haiti has cost several thousand lives. With the rescue operation commencing so has a battle against time.

The worst earthquake in more than 200 years hit Haiti yesterday and now has large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince destroyed, rendering tens of thousands of residents homeless. In the streets were the dead and the injured. How many there are, no one can say for sure. According to experts, more than two million people are severely affected by the quake. Several thousand people are likely to be killed. From the presidential palace to the huts in the slums thousands of buildings collapsed. At night, thousands of people gathered in the squares, singing religious songs or crying.

Hedi Annabi, the head of the UN's mission in Haiti, is feared dead

“The hospitals are overwhelmed with all these victims”, Doctor Louis Gerard Gilles said. The U.S. Embassy in Haiti, contacted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Washington, said there was considerable loss of life. In the meantime, the rescue and salvage operations have begun. It is a battle against time, every minute can be critical.

Ban Ki-moon worried

Among the dead of the earthquake in Haiti is probably the head of the UN mission, the Tunisian Hedi Annabi. That said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday. “The UN building has collapsed. And it seems that everyone who was in the building are dead, among them my friend Annabi, the Special Envoy of UN Secretary-General, and all who were “with him,” said Kouchner, the broadcaster RTL.

The Foreign Ministry could not confirm this quotation at first. The Tunisian diplomat in Haiti since September 2007 in action. The United Nations building collapsed were 200 to 250 employees operate. Many UN employees currently absent due to the confusing situation even more signs of life.

The buildings of the UN Development Program UNDP and the World Food Program, WFP has not been destroyed, according to the UN in Geneva, however. The organization has about 11,000 blue-helmet soldiers, police officers and employees as part of MINUSTAH peacekeeping mission in the country.

UNICEF is concerned that increasing the number of casualties in the densely populated region around the capital, Port-au-Prince on. The United Nations now assume that there are over two million people affected by the quake. Almost half of those affected are children and adolescents.

Corpses on the street

Locally provided a picture of horror. Bodies lay on the streets, calling for medical help for serious injuries – but that was almost nonexistent. In many places, there was neither electricity nor telephone. Distraught man climbed over the rubble searching for or running aimlessly through the streets. With bare hands were trying to free trapped too.

The air was full even hours after the quake dust from the collapsed buildings, whose construction has bothered many years in the politically unstable country, hardly anyone around regulations. Now many of them collapsed like houses of cards.

“The whole town is in the dark,” said Rachmaninov Domersant by the American relief organization Food for the Poor. “Thousands of people are sitting on the street and not know where to go.” According to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti broke out in Port-au-Prince also cooperated with the telephone lines.

U.S. offers to help

The U.S. offered to help the impoverished Caribbean nation. U.S. President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers are with the people in Haiti. The Foreign Ministry entered into discussions on a humanitarian mission. The U.S. also expect a lot of deaths. “Our diplomats on the ground has” seen many corpses on the streets and sidewalks, “said a spokesman for the U.S. Foreign Affairs. “It seems clear that there are many deaths,” added Philip Crowley. Kristie van de Wetering, an ex-employee of the aid organization Oxfam, which described in Port-of-Prince is alive, the New York Times, the situation with the words: “debris everywhere” debris. Above the city lies a dust cover. You hear people screaming at each corner for help. The people were “very nervous. Even Mexico and Venezuela have announced support.

News from the earthquake region were also via Internet services such as Twitter. Thus the musician Richard Morse sent terrifying impressions he had learned at second hand. He spoke of people screaming in fear and debris blocked roads.

Thickness of 7.0

With a magnitude of 7.0, the quake was on Tuesday at 16.53 clock time (22.53 CET clock), according to the U.S. seismological (USGS) in Golden, Colorado, the worst in Haiti since 1770th The center was 15 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, at a depth of eight kilometers.

Now the center was 15 kilometers west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of eight kilometers. There had been at least six aftershocks with readings of more than 4.5, said USGS seismologist Harley Benz.

Also in the Dominican Republic, the earth shook

Also in the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, swaying buildings. About larger damage in the popular holiday destination but was initially unknown. Also in eastern Cuba, the earth quaked. The U.S. Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

In the neighboring Dominican Republic came in 1946 after an earthquake of intensity 8.1 1790 people died.

Haiti is located, together with neighboring Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. In the country, one of the poorest in the world, is home to around nine million people. More than half of them live on less than one dollar a day.