US Sends Teams to Haiti School Collapse

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WASHINGTON: US search and rescue teams are en route to a school that collapsed in Haiti Friday, killing dozens of children and burying many more in rubble, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said.

After sending a team to assess the situation, USAID dispatched 38 emergency search and rescue workers, four search dogs and 31,000 pounds of rescue equipment, "due to arrive in Haiti on Saturday morning," a statement said.

"This is a tragic situation, especially since children are involved. We are working alongside the Haitian government to provide immediate assistance in the rescue efforts," said USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, expressing sympathy to the victims "on behalf of the American people."

About 50 schoolchildren and teachers were killed when a shantytown school packed with hundreds of students collapsed during classes Friday, a government official said.

The three-story La Promesse (The Promise) school in Petion-ville, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, caved in in a heap of cement slabs and twisted steel rods at about 10:00 am (1500 GMT) Friday, trapping scores inside.

By late in the day around 50 bodies, most of them children, had been found, officials said.

"We have counted about 50 dead for the moment, and around 85 injured," said Nadia Lochard of the civil protection bureau.

"But there are still numerous children stuck in the rubble. We have signs that they are still alive and we are organizing help to try to save them," she said.

As many as 700 students aged from three to 20 attend the church-run school in a suburb of the capital, but an accurate count of how many had been inside when it crumbled was not available.


Via news