50 killed, 400 trapped in Haiti school collapse

Petionville (Haiti), Nov 8: The death toll from the collapse of a hillside school where roughly 500 students usually crowded into several floors has risen to 47.

Haitian police spokesman Garry Desrosier said on Friday, Nov 7 that at least 39 bodies have been brought to the morgue at Port-au-Prince's General Hospital. Francois Servranckx, a spokesman for the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, says another eight people died in a trauma center run by the group. More than 80 others are being treated for injuries by aid group, Doctors without Borders.

Jimmy Germain, a French teacher at the school, says neighbors suspected the building was poorly rebuilt after it partially collapsed eight years ago.

He says people who lived just downhill abandoned their land out of fear that the building would tumble.

ANI