Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of Haiti is feared to have killed hundreds of people across the Caribbean country. In the space of a minute, Haiti's worst quake in two centuries wrecked the HQ of the UN mission, Haiti's national palace and numerous other buildings. A "large number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation. Describing it as a "catastrophe", Haiti's envoy to the US said the cost of the damage could run into billions. The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards. Aid workers and reporters at the scene estimated the number of dead to be in the hundreds or even thousands. Vehicles ferrying the injured to hospital were hampered by rubble blocking the capital's streets. Bodies, white with dust, could be seen piled on the back of a pick-up truck. As night fell, Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, said: "The whole city is in darkness. "You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. Adding that he had seen no rescue vehicles in the hillside suburb of Petionville, he said: "People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights. "I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement." As the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is likely to need international aid in order to cope with the quake's impact, the BBC's Nick Davies reports from neighbouring Jamaica. 'Three million affected' In a statement issued in New York, the UN said that its local HQ in Haiti had "sustained serious damage along with other UN installations" and "a large number" of personnel were missing. EYEWITNESS Carel Pedre, TV and radio presenter, Port-au-Prince I saw a lot of people crying for help, a lot of buildings collapsed, a lot of car damage, a lot of people without help, people bleeding. I saw a movie theatre, a supermarket, a cybercafe, an apartment building which collapsed. Now it's dark outside, there is no electricity, all the phone networks are down, so there's no way that people can get in touch with their family and friends. There are aftershocks every 15 to 20 minutes. They last from three to five seconds. The first shock was really strong, people were falling in the streets and buildings collapsed. I didn't see any emergency services, the people at the neighbourhood were trying to help each other. The streets are narrow and there is lot of traffic and everyone is trying to reach family and friends. Traffic now is really difficult. People don't know where to go or where to start. Eyewitness: 'Blood all over them' UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said it was unclear how many people had been inside the building. The UN's stabilisation mission plays a vital role in ensuring security in Haiti. Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US, said the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce and the foreign ministry had all been damaged, but the airport was intact. The World Bank, which said its local offices were destroyed but that most staff were accounted for, planned to send a team to help Haiti assess damage and plan a recovery, Reuters reported. Mike Blanpied of the US Geological Survey said that, based on the location and size of the quake, about three million people would have been severely shaken by its impact. "This quake occurred under land as opposed to off-shore, so a lot of people were directly exposed to the shaking coming off that earthquake fault, which was quite shallow," he told the BBC. US President Barack Obama said in a statement that his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and America stood ready to assist them. 'Rubble and wire' In the minutes after the quake, Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had tumbled into a ravine. HAITI COUNTRY PROFILE Half of Caribbean island of Hispaniola History of violence, instability and dictatorship Population of 10 million people Most live on less than $2 a day Democratic rule restored in 2006 Economy in ruins and unemployment is chronic UN peacekeepers deployed - foreign aid seen as vital Massive deforestation has left just 2% forest "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust". He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake. "I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance." He said rocks were strewn all over the place, and the ravine where several homes had fallen in was "just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire". BBC News website readers in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, said they had also felt the quake. "My family is on the 8th floor of a tower in downtown Santo Domingo," wrote Max Levine. "We felt a swaying of the building for 5-10 seconds. All the lamps were swinging. There was a 20-second pause and then another similar sway. We rushed out of the building with many others to the street." In the immediate aftermath of the quake, a tsunami watch was put out for Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, but this was later lifted. Have you been affected by the earthquake? 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Map of where the quake struck.
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Haiti earlier today at 21:53 UTC, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, no tsunami warning was issued, contradicting some media reports that said there was one in place. The quake's magnitude was revised down from an initial report of 7.3 on the Richter scale.

"A destructive widespread tsunami threat does not exist based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. "However, there is the possibility of a local tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than a 100 km 60 miles from the earthquake epicentre."

The USGS reports that the epicentre was fifteen kilometres (ten miles) southwest of Port-au-Prince and  southeast of Miami, Florida, at a depth of ten kilometres.

According to USGS analyst Dale Grant, this tremor was "the largest quake recorded in this area"; the last strong quake was in 1984, and had a magnitude of 6.7, he noted.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken. The sky is just gray with dust," said Henry Bahn, an official with the US Department of Agriculture who was visiting in Haiti and a witness to the incident. "I just held on and bounced across the wall. I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance," he commented, as quoted by the Associated Press.

A map indicating the intensity of the earthquake in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, made by USGSAccording to data from the USGS, there were thirteen aftershocks after the initial tremors, the strongest of which was 5.9 on the Richter scale; seven others measured in at 5.0 or higher – all the aftershocks were 4.0 or greater.

No deaths have yet been reported, but a hospital in Port-au-Prince was damaged, and a US government official said several houses fell into a ravine. An analyst for USGS in Colorado commented that there could be many deaths from an earthquake of this strength. "I think we are going to see substantial damage and casualties," he said.

The USGS's Mike Blanpied remarked that about three million people were impacted by the earthquake, given its location. "This quake occurred under land as opposed to off-shore, so a lot of people were directly exposed to the shaking coming off that earthquake fault, which was quite shallow," he said.

A lack of communications makes it difficult to ascertain what damage was done. US embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" due to power failures, said State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley. "They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said, as quoted by AP. A reporter for Reuters said he had seen "dozens of dead and injured people" amidst collapsed buildings.

"We are trying to get in touch with our people on the ground but we are experiencing communication problems, which is not unusual in a disaster such as this," said United Nations spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker to Agence France-Presse.


=== Aid appeals and international reaction ===

Appeals for aid flooded in following the disaster. In a phone call to CNN, the Haitian ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, said: "I'm calling on all friends of Haiti and people who are listening to me to please come to our aid. Today as Haiti is going through the worst day in its history I am calling for all others who got help from us in the beginning to help in support. The only thing I can do now is pray and hope for the best."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that her country would also provide assistance to Haitians. "The United States is offering our full assistance to Haiti and to others in the region. We will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance and our prayers are with the people who have suffered, their families and their loved ones."

President Barack Obama also said that the country would be "ready to assist" Haiti.