HAITI: At least 30 killed as Haitian school collapses

Record ID: 216215

  • Title: HAITI: At least 30 killed as Haitian school collapses
  • Date: 8th November 2008
  • Summary: CROWDS OUTSIDE SCHOOL RED CROSS WORKERS TALKING OUTSIDE SCHOOL SOUNDBITE (Creole) LYDIE PARENTS, MAYOR OF PETIONVILLE, SAYING: "I can't say how many are dead, because we're pulling the bodies out now. After we get the reports from the doctors we can release the official numbers to tell you how many" RESCUE WORKER DIGGING THROUGH RUBBLE
  • Embargoed: 23rd November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAB1RHDNZIHWO4BNAOS7G6WUP4A
  • Story Text: Haitian school collapses, at least 30 killed.
    A church school collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti's capital on Friday (November 7), killing at least 30 people and burying dozens under rubble, rescue workers said.
    The three-story La Promesse school building collapsed while class was in session and some of the walls and debris crushed neighboring residences in the Nerettes community near Port-au-Prince.
    U.N. peacekeeping troops rushed to the scene to assist in the rescue effort.
    The mayor of Petionville, Lydie Parents, said it was too early to see how high the death toll might rise.

    "I can't say how many are dead, because we're pulling the bodies out now. After we get the reports from the doctors we can release the official numbers to tell you how many," said Parents.
    She appealed for everyone to pitch in on the rescue effort.
    At the scene, crying and screaming parents searched desperately for their children while bodies of students lay crushed under blocks of concrete.
    Police said more than 25 people had been hospitalized in very serious condition.
    The roads around the school were so jammed with people looking for loved ones that some of the rescuers had to be brought in by helicopter.
    More than 9,000 multinational troops and police currently make up a U.N. peacekeeping force sent to stabilize Haiti after its former president was driven out in a bloody rebellion in 2004.
    The impoverished Caribbean nation lacks sophisticated rescue equipment.
    Haiti is still struggling with the destruction wrought by four tropical storms and hurricanes that hit in quick succession this year, killing more than 800 people and destroying 60 percent of the crop harvest.
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