Fresh quake shakes Haiti from sleep

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Agencies) - The people of Haiti were shaken from their sleep Wednesday by another strong earthquake that sent hundreds fleeing in panic into the streets of the already devastated Haitian capital.
With virtually the entire city still camped out in the open after last weeks deadly quake - largely for fear of aftershocks - the latest tremor was not expected to have caused much damage in the Haitian capital.
But a Times reporter expressed the fear that it could have disturbed the collapsed buildings from which, eight days into Haitis nightmare, miraculous rescues are still happening on a regular basis.
The US Geological Survey said Wednesdays 6.1 magnitude quake hit at 6:03am (1103 GMT) about 56km northwest of the capital. Last weeks quake, which killed an estimated 100,000 people, measured 7.0 - approximately 15 times more powerful.
There have been numerous aftershocks since last weeks major quake, but Wednesdays was on a different scale and appeared to be a discrete geological event.
The Times reporter, Giles Whittell, who was shaken awake on the roof of a hotel in central Port-au-Prince, said that the temblor was very loud and went on for five to ten seconds. There was the noise up close and everything shaking and then the rumble behind that of the whole city shaking, Whittell said.
I had no idea at the time how big it was but it was certainly only a different scale to the other aftershocks that have been hitting periodically.
Only a few hours beforehand, Whittell was among a group of reporters who watched as a 26-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble of a department store on Rue Lalue. The woman, named as Natalie, sang hymns as she was taken away in an ambulance. It was part of what was dubbed a triple miracle. Also plucked to safety was a 15-day-old baby who had spent half her life in the rubble of her home and a 69-year-old woman rescued from the remains of Port-au-Prince cathedral.
Whittell said that the woman rescued from the department store had been under a concrete slab which had come to rest an inch from her forehead and just a few inches from her chest. Some of the rescuers were so overcome that they started crying.
The United Nations said that 121 people had now been rescued by international teams in the past week and that there were still hopes of finding more. But Maj-Gen Daniel Allyn, deputy commander of the military operation in Haiti, said US forces would soon switch the focus of the operation to recovering bodies rather than looking for survivors.
Relatives told AFP that Haitian police killed a 15-year-old girl, Fabienne Cherisma, while firing warning shots over looters in the capital.
Some witnesses in the angry crowd, including the girls father, said a policeman had aimed deliberately at the girl, while others spoke of a warning shot that went astray.
On Tuesday, US paratroopers secured the ruined presidential palace, which is now surrounded by a squalid refugee camp. From there, a 100-strong squad of soldiers marched to the citys general hospital, which is swamped with injured people.
US Marines also landed southwest of Port-au-Prince to link up with UN peacekeepers before more troops and equipment arrives.