Port-au-Prince, Aug 23: The number of people killed by the massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake on August 14 in Haiti has increased to 2,207, with 344 others still missing, the country’s civil protection agency reported.
The agency said on Twitter on Sunday that a week after the earthquake, which also left at least 12,268 injured, the number of damaged homes exceeded 77,000, while almost 53,000 were destroyed, reports Xinhua news agency.
The earthquake had its epicentre some 125 km west of Port-au-Prince and had a depth of 10 km, which is why at the time a tsunami alert was issued, but was later cancelled.
Meanwhile, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to “show solidarity”.
In 2010, another massive earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure and economy.