Britain vows assistance for Haiti

A damaged building after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
12 April 2012

Britain has pledged to assist Haiti after a devastating earthquake which is believed to have killed thousands of people and left millions in need of aid.

Haitian PM Jean-Max Bellerive said he feared the death toll could top 100,000, while president Rene Garcia Preval said the scale of suffering was "unimaginable".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised emergency equipment, firefighters and finance.

British-based charities launched appeals to raise money to fund rescue efforts, as well as food, water, shelter and medicines for survivors.

A four-man team was sent by the Department for International Development to assess the damage and a team of 64 rescue specialists with dogs and heavy equipment gathered at Gatwick Airport - although their departure was delayed by snow.

The quake hit the Caribbean island state shortly before 5pm local time (9.53pm GMT) on Tuesday, toppling hundreds of buildings in capital Port-au-Prince ranging from shacks to a hospital, the United Nations headquarters and the presidential palace.

Seismologists said the impact of the quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, was all the more destructive because its epicentre was "shallow", causing greater shaking on the surface of the ground.

Its epicentre was within 10 miles of the centre of densely-populated Port-au-Prince, where around one million people live.

Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said that more than 100 people - including mission head Hedi Annabi - are missing in the organisation's collapsed HQ, while a further 40 UN staff are also unaccounted for in other damaged buildings.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described the tremor as "catastrophic" and urged the international community "to come to Haiti's aid in this hour of need". He announced that the UN would provide 10 million US dollars (£6.2 million) for relief from its emergency fund.

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