Rescue efforts in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince nearly destroyed by a powerful earthquake is possible only in the daytime, a Russian emergencies official in Haiti said Friday.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which struck Haiti on Tuesday, followed by many aftershocks, nearly leveled Port-au-Prince, with tens of thousands thought to have died.
Salavat Mingaliyev, the head of Russia's rescue mission in Haiti, told journalists that "the situation in the city is very tense and complicated."
"Two prisons have been destroyed, there are large numbers of looters in the city," he said. "So rescue work in Port-au-Prince is only carried out in the daytime."
He also said they had not been able to set up an Emergency Situations Ministry mobile hospital. "All free stadiums, squares and parks in the city where it is possible to set up the hospital have been occupied by refugees."
Meanwhile, a fourth Russian Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft landed in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
"The aircraft has special emergency and rescue equipment, a Bk-117 helicopter and a humanitarian aid cargo on board," the ministry said.
Earlier three ministry cargo planes landed in the republic after the Haitian government said there was no more room for planes to unload their cargo at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince.
Two have since flown on to Haiti, but the level of damage at Haiti's international airport has crippled humanitarian aid deliveries. Power outages and the destruction of the control tower meant that on Thursday 11 planes with humanitarian aid circled above the airport and were directed to other airports on the island.
Most humanitarian aid is now on the ground, but cannot be delivered to the capital because of road conditions and the lack of transportation facilities.
Mexico's ambassador to Haiti Everardo Suarez told RIA Novosti earlier Friday that sanitary conditions in the capital were reaching catastrophic levels due to the lack of water and decaying bodies lying in the streets.
Suarez said the situation is getting worse every day due to the lack of water, electricity and medical support, and that looters take to the streets at night in search of food, water and anything valuable.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Haiti), January 15 (RIA Novosti)
