PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the northwest coast of Haiti late Saturday, killing at least 11 people, injuring more than 130 others and damaging homes in the Caribbean nation, authorities said.
The epicentre of the quake was located about 19 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of the city of Port-de-Paix, the US Geological Survey reported.
The quake, which was felt across the country, struck at 8:10 pm (0010 GMT Sunday) at a shallow depth of 11.7 kilometres.
Government spokesman Eddy Jackson Alexis told AFP that 11 people had been reported dead so far, seven of them in Port-de-Paix, the capital of Haiti’s Nord-Ouest department.
Four others were killed in the town of Gros-Morne, about 50 kilometres to the southeast, the spokesman said.
Haiti’s civil protection agency put the preliminary number of injured at 135.
Two minor aftershocks were registered, the agency said, adding that no tsunami warning was issued in connection with the quake activity.
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