Major disaster feared as strong earthquake hits Haiti

Preliminary reports suggested the earthquake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, making it one of the largest ever to hit the region and putting the surrounding area in fear of aftershocks and tsunami.

Witnesses said the presidential palace in the capital, Port-au-Prince, collapsed and that there were more houses destroyed than standing in one major thoroughfare.

"Everything started shaking, people were screaming, houses started collapsing... it's total chaos," Reuters reporter Joseph Guyler Delva said. "I saw people under the rubble, and people killed."

Panic-stricken residents filled the streets trying to dig people from rubble as dark began to fall, he said.

Henry Bahn, a US Department of Agriculture official visiting Haiti, said: "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken. The sky is just grey

with dust. I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

US President Barack Obama said his country would do what it could to help the stricken people of Haiti.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake," he said.

Don Blakeman, an analyst at the US Geological Survey in Colorado, said such a strong quake carried potentially catastrophic consequences for what is the poorest country in the whole of the Americas.