The earthquake pulled down the presidential palace

An unprecedented large earthquake in Haiti for 200 years rocked the entire nation yesterday, causing many buildings to collapse including the presidential palace.

A man called for help under the rubble after the earthquake.Photo: Reuters .

AP said that the body was lying on the street, screaming everywhere, stone bricks were scattered, dust covered in obscurity, creating an extremely chaotic scene.

The earthquake with magnitude 7 on the Richter scale occurred at 4h53 pm on January 12 (local time) and quickly followed two aftershocks with a magnitude of 5.9 and 5.5 Richter scale. The epicenter is located 15 km southwest of Port-au-Prince and lies at a depth of 8 km below the sea.

Communication lines were cut off, electricity was lost in many places, making statistics of casualties after the disaster impossible. Sara Fajardo, a spokesman for a relief organization, said "there must be thousands of people killed".

Meteorological experts say this is the biggest earthquake since 1770 in this region of Haiti. In 1946, an 8.1-degree Richter earthquake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, following a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

The magnitude of the earthquake this time over the size of Port-au-Prince City will be easy to create a tragic tragedy in terms of both casualties and physical damage, said Tom Jordan of Southern University. California said. "It's a real killer," Jordan said. "When something like this happens, you just have to hope for the best."

The epicenter of the earthquake.Photo: Reuters .

Most 9 million Haitian people are in the form of poverty, and after years of political instability, the country in this Caribbean sea has not yet had any construction codes. In November 2008, after a collapsed school in Petionville, Premier Port-au-Prince estimated that about 60% of buildings were built quickly and unsafe, even under the most normal conditions.

The Dominican Republic, together with the island of Espanola with Haiti, called on the international community to send emergency relief to Haiti. US President Barack Obama also stated that the United States is ready to help this neighboring country.