India rushes aid to Haiti, 5 lakh feared dead

India on Thursday said it was deeply saddened at the death and destruction caused by the earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday, and decided to give $ 1 million in cash for immediate and emergency relief purposes in the country.

"Communications with Haiti are currently difficult. However, it has been ascertained that all 140 personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force deployed with the United Nations are safe. So are all civil police officers deployed with the United Nations Mission in Haiti," the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

The Ministry also said that it is in contact with the Indian Embassy in Havana, which is concurrently accredited to Haiti, to ascertain the welfare of other Indian nationals who are presently in Haiti.

Nearly 5 lakh people are feared to be dead in Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude quake struck the impoverished country's capital on Tuesday afternoon.

Major international relief efforts have been launched to hurry rescuers and suppliers to the Caribbean country as the streets of Port-au-Prince were left scattered with corpses and shattered buildings.

Hospitals and schools collapsed and were reportedly full of dead while 200 foreigners were missing from the city's expensive Hotel Montana.

The whereabouts of almost 200 United Nations staff in the city are yet to be ascertained including the civilian head of mission, Hedi Annabi of Tunisia.

The city's Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Serge Miot, was a confirmed casualty, as his body was pulled from the rubble of his offices.

Haitian President Rene Preval, whose palace was substantially destroyed, described the scene in his capital as "unimaginable".

He said he had been stepping over the bodies of the dead and hearing the cries of the trapped underneath his country''s collapsed parliament building.

The country's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the government believed the death toll in the city of two million people was "well over 100,000" while Youri Latortue, a senior senator, said it could be 5 lakh.

Both admitted they had no way of knowing but aid workers on the scene reported widespread destruction and suffering as severely injured people lay in the streets, unable to get medical assistance.

Haiti sits on a major fault line and scientists have warned for years that it was likely to be hit by a major earthquake.

Image: Residents walk next to a dead body after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince | Photograph: Carlos Barria / Reuters