A woman receives assistance in a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince Thousands of people are feared dead in Haiti after a massive 7.0 earthquake devastated one of the world’s poorest countries yesterday.
Bloodstained bodies lay strewn in the street of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as the full horror of the disaster began to emerge in the early hours today.
Eyewitnesses said gravely injured Haitians were crying out from the rubble, pleading for doctors as night fell. With the country in chaos and facing still more damage from a series of 30 aftershocks, their cries went mostly unheard.
A section of the Haiti National Palace was destroyed in the massive earthquakeOne hotel collapse in Port-au-Prince is feared to have claimed the lives of more than 200 people.
The destruction is said to be staggering, even in an impoverished nation accustomed to tragedy and disaster. The National Palace is in ruins, a major hospital crumbled and tens of thousands of people homeless.
The headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission also collapsed and a large number of staff in the five-storey building are believed to have been killed.
Up to 250 people normally work at the UN headquarters and none had been rescued by late last night. It was unclear how many people were in their offices when the earthquake hit.
Gareth Owen, emergencies director at Save the Children, which has around 60 staff in Haiti, said: 'We are very concerned about the high likelihood of a significant loss of life because Port-au-Prince is a very densely populated city and the earthquake epicentre was very close to it.
'Initial reports from our people there from the immediate vicinity of where they are indicate that it looks very bad indeed.'
Our current planning assumption is a very serious emergency. Our biggest challenge at the moment is going to be logistics because currently the airport is out of action.
'Our immediate challenge is going to be getting emergency supplies and relief supplies into the country.'
Shock: Stunned Haitians walk past damaged building in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the quake
Desperate: Two women crouch in the rubble hours after the earthquake ripped through HaitiWith communications disrupted, it may be days before the full death toll is known. The pictures tell a harrowing story, some of the first to emerge appeared on the Twitter networking site.
But Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told American colleagues that ‘there must be thousands of people dead.
The UK Government said it was 'deeply concerned' about the reported scale of the earthquake and was sending a team from the Department for International Development (DFID) to assess the humanitarian needs.
A DFID spokesman said: 'We are deeply concerned at the reported scale of the earthquake which has struck Haiti. It appears to have been severe, causing considerable damage and harm.
'We do not yet have a clear picture of needs from the Haitian authorities or from humanitarian agencies. We are monitoring the situation closely.
'Overnight we have mobilised a DFID humanitarian assessment team to fly to Haiti today. We stand ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required.'
Emergency aid: Two men help a woman freed from rubble in Haiti
The earthquake caused widespread destruction including the collapse of major roads 
Haitians carry an injured person from the rubble after a major earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale hit the poor Caribbean nation
A house begins to crumble in the earthquake which has also destroyed government buildings in the capital
Death and suffering: Early images out of Port-au-Prince tell a harrowing story
Close call: Survivors count their blessings after the quake struck
The earthquake epicentre was ten miles outside Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital
Standing proud: The palace before the earthquake
The epicentre of the quake was located inland, 14 miles (22km) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, pictured on a typical daysource: dailymail