Three million await help as Haiti crumbles

The massive quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, virtually destroyed the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, after hitting it with 35 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

As a massive international aid operation swung into action, the scale of the human cost and destruction began to become apparent.

Bodies were yesterday piled in the streets and countless others remained buried in the wreckage of buildings after the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years struck on Tuesday.

The epicentre was just 10 miles from the capital, where street after street of ramshackle buildings simply collapsed.

Haiti's president, Rene Preval, said he believed thousands of people are dead. Other officials gave much higher estimates based on the extent of the destruction.

Prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN: "I believe we are well over 100,000." Haitian senator Youri Latortue said 500,000 may have lost their lives. Both admitted they had no way of knowing.

Among the buildings that were destroyed was the UN peacekeeping headquarters, with 100 staff missing, feared dead. The head of the church, Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, was also killed.

The full scale of the disaster in one of the world's poorest countries remains unclear, with communications virtually wiped out when the earthquake hit at 4.53pm local time.

But Mr Preval said: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed."

The Red Cross said a third of Haiti's nine million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.

There were reports of people screaming for help from a wrecked hospital in the Petionville district of Port-au-Prince.

"The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," said Dr Louis-Gerard Gilles as he helped survivors.

A spokesman for the American Red Cross said last night that the aid organisation had already run out of medical supplies. Eric Porterfield said the small amount of medical equipment available in Haiti had been distributed.

Wealthy areas were wrecked along with the poor. Taiwan's foreign ministry said its embassy was destroyed and the ambassador hospitalised. Spain said its embassy was badly damaged.

The UN's 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti suffered their own tragedies. At least 11 Brazilians died, along with eight Chinese and three Jordanians.

The UN said the capital's main airport was "fully operational" and that relief flights were beginning. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN would immediately release $10m (6.15m) from its emergency response fund.

Gordon Brown pledged Britain would do all it could to help, and said: "Haiti has moved to centre of the world's thoughts and the world's compassion."

Speaking in Washington, US President Barack Obama vowed "unwavering support" for Haiti after what he called a "particularly cruel" disaster.