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Death toll Rises.
Haiti's earthquake may have killed up to 200,000 people, according to the government. More than 50,000 bodies have already been collected to be buried in mass graves.
The government has given the United States control over its main airport to coordinate the international relief effort. Aid supplies are being flown in from all over the world but their distribution is being hampered by chaos and disturbances.
The US is sending 10,000 troops to Haiti to help distribute emergency supplies and maintain order. In the capital Port-au-Prince gangs of youths are reported roaming the streets armed with machetes. A UN warehouse has been plundered and shops are being looted. UN relief workers say many survivors are angry that it's taking so long for aid and supplies to reach them.
UN Secretary-General will visit the disaster area on Sunday. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is travelling to Haiti later today.
Looters Rule the Street.
Looters and robbers are ruling the Haitian streets days after the devastating earth quake. People are robbing the shops and collapsed supermarkets just for eatables to survive.
A looter trying to nab eatables with his knife. (c) ReutersOne rioter, a man in his 30s, was killed outright by bullets to the head as the crowd grabbed produce in the Marche Hyppolite.
Another looter quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man's back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.
It came as predictions of the death toll from the Haitian earthquake rose to 200,000 as mounting desperation at lack of aid threatens to tilt the country into anarchy.
With up to three million survivors still cut off from outside rescue efforts, the United Nations said the disaster was the worst it had ever dealt with.
Aid officials fear a lapse into all-out lawlessness in coming days unless US troops can get through with vital food, medicine and water deliveries, which are being hampered by the sheer scale of devastation. There were continued incidents of looting, and isolated reports of rescue workers being stoned by angry crowds.
The UN's warning came as the full picture of the horror in the flattened capital of Port au Prince emerged. Haitian ministers claimed the body count could rise far beyond the 50,000 estimate made by the Red Cross officials on Friday, saying that 50,000 bodies had already been buried. Trucks piled high with corpses delivered them to mass graves outside the stricken city, with thousands more still lying uncollected on the streets or buried under heavy rubble.
"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," said interior minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
If that casualty count is confirmed, it would make Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake one of the ten deadliest on record. The death toll would also rival that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed roughly 250,000 lives. However, officials with knowledge of both incidents said the Haitian disaster - which hit a country already barely functional - posed an infinitely tougher relief challenge.
"This is a historic disaster," said UN spokesman Elisabeth Byrs, whose own organisation has lost 36 local staff in the earthquake. "We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other."
The UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, added: "There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance.
Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, Interior Minister had stated earlier, "We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies. We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number. " Aramick Louis, the Haiti Secretary of State for Public safety has confirmed that about 40,000 bodies have already been buried in mass graves in the Carribean nation.
These figures in regards to Haiti earthquake death toll has, already put this earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks on the list of ten deadliest earthquakes ever recorded, as per reports.
Even as relief work still continues and the country has begun recuperating with authorities asessing damages, a more worrying report has come into the news. Incidents of robberies and looting by bandits are on the rise, especially targeting those Haiti earthquake victims and survivors who have moved into camps on streets and sidewalks. Such looting has happened even in the capital city of Port au Prince. (c) Various Sources.
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