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(Reuters) – An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 hit Saturday at the northern tip of Haiti, causing a large number of casualties and extensive property damage, including an auditorium that was uninjured. collapsed, authorities and the media reported.
The quake struck about 20 km west-northwest of the port of Port-de-Paix, announced the US Geological Survey (USGS). Local media reported at least one death.
The earthquake was one of the worst in Haiti since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake near the capital Port-au-Prince in 2010, killing thousands in the impoverished Caribbean country.
In an article on Twitter, Haitian President Jovenel Moise urged the population to remain calm after the civil protection agency declared that the earthquake caused injuries and panic in the northern cities.
According to the newspaper Le Nouvelliste, a person died when an auditorium collapsed in the town of Gros Morne and detainees were released from the detention cell of the police damaged. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
The earthquake damaged the facade of a church in the city of Plaisance and a house collapsed, said Twitter on Twitter Frantz Duval, a journalist at Le Nouvelliste.
The first social media reports said the Saturday earthquake was felt in Port-au-Prince but did not cause significant damage in the region.
(Dave Graham Editor, edited by Frank Jack Daniel and Stephen Coates)
