海地新聞：小男孩廢墟中被埋48小時后成功解救

The hotel had 'folded' in seconds and she had plunged several feet before coming to rest in an area where plenty of air was able to flow through.

Sitting up eating a biscuit while medics checked her, she said she had been trapped with five others and had been talking with them up until moment of rescue. All five were subsequently pulled clear, including an American.

 

Despairing: Amid a scene of total devastation, one resident sits on a chair, his head in his hand

Rezene Tesfamariam, Haiti director of charity Plan International, said people were using their bare hands or basic tools such as shovels or pick-axes to try to reach loved ones.

He said: 'There are people still alive underneath the rubble, you can hear them crying for help, but time is running out.

'It is beyond the means of individuals to reach them. They are trying to move concrete with their hands. What is desperately needed is proper machinery and equipment to lift the rubble.'

Mr Tesfamariam, who lost his own home in the quake, added: 'I have seen refugees fleeing war and cyclones hitting villages, but in those cases at least you have time to run away. In just a few seconds so many lives were wiped out. Port-au-Prince looks like it has been bombed.

'I went back to my house and a neighbour called my name. She said there were children under the rubble. I shouted to them and they called back.

Desperate Haitians pleaded with international authorities yesterday to do more to get emergency aid to those who need it.

Governments across the world are pouring relief supplies and medical teams into the Caribbean state - already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

But the sheer scale of the destruction and logistical problems in distributing supplies has meant hundreds of thousands in the capital Port-au-Prince are without food, water or shelter.

The earthquake badly damaged the city's seaport, allowing only limited use, while its airport has been forced to turn away aid planes because of a lack of space and fuel.

Caught in the act: A Haitian policeman aims his rifle towards one of the looters who have been desperately scouring the city for food and drink

Desperate: People queue for water on the streets of Port-au-Prince where resources are scarce

Bodies fill the front yard of the morgue in Port-au-Prince. Survivors have started using corpses as road blocks

 

Relief workers have also been unable to reach the most badly affected by truck because of debris on roads that were already inadequate before the quake hit.

In two areas of the capital, groups of survivors stacked rotting corpses across main roads to protest about the lack of aid.

One man begged: 'We need food, water, doctors, medicine. We need it now - tomorrow is too late - we are thirsty now.'

However, hopes were raised last night after hundreds of U.S. troops - part of a 5,500-strong force promised by President Obama - arrived in Haiti.



An aerial view shows a ruined cathedral after Tuesday's earthquake. Troops and planeloads of food and medicine streamed into Haiti to aid a traumatised nation

James Girly, 64, of the US is brought out of a destroyed building of the Montana Hotel where he was trapped for 50 hours in Port-au-Prince

 

British search and rescue teams with sniffer dogs and heavy lifting equipment have also touched down, and spent much of yesterday combing the wreckage for survivors.

But many Haitians - facing their fourth night of sleeping in the open air - are growing angry and desperate.

Looters roamed downtown streets armed with machetes while others salvaged goods, including scraps of food, scavenged from the rubble.

Michel Legros, 53, who was searching for several relatives under the concrete of his collapsed home, said: 'They are scavenging everything.' 

Jean Reynol, 37, a petrol station attendant, said that he feared it would not be long before the anger turned to violence.

'We're worried that people will get a little uneasy,' he added. 'People have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation.'

Charity worker Fevil Dubien said fights had broken out over water he distributed from a truck in one of the city's northern neighbourhoods.

And aid agencies hoping to distribute food supplies are also say that their efforts may need more security.

UN peacekeepers were patrolling Port-au-Prince last night to try to quell tensions.

Its World Food Programme reported yesterday that its warehouses had been looted and said it did not know how much of its stockpile of 15,000 tons of aid remained.

And it warned that hygiene could soon become a major problem as thousands of bodies are left to rot in the street.

Hundreds of corpses were stacked outside the city morgue last night, while limbs of the dead protruded from the rubble of collapsed office buildings, schools and homes.

Survivors gathered around bodies in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince photographed during a joint Red Cross Red Crescent/ECHO (European Community Humanitarian Organization) aerial assessment mission

People gather around a petrol pump seeking fuel. Petrol shortage is causing long queues and angry customers

HOW THE UK GAVE £2M IN JUST A FEW HOURS

Britons have donated more than £2million to help Haiti in only 36 hours.

The money was given even before an appeal on TV and radio for the Disasters Emergency Committee, which is co-ordinating the Haiti Earthquake Appeal on behalf of 13 UK aid agencies, was broadcast yesterday.

Donations can be made by phone on 0370 60 60 900 and through its website www.dec.org.uk.

Aid will be distributed through Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said: 'We are delighted at the generosity of the British people but it is vitally important that people continue to donate.'

The £2million figure for online giving was passed at around 8am yesterday. Donations by other means are not included.

The DEC said the money would be used to buy supplies as close as possible to the disaster area and sent straight to those in need.

The Queen has already made a private donation to the appeal, and last night Clarence House said Prince Charles had given to a Red Cross fund.