Haiti death toll could be 200,000: EU

Port-Au-Prince (Haiti), Jan. 19 (ANI): The magnitude-7 Haiti earthquake could have killed almost 200,000 people out of which about 70,000 bodies have been recovered so far, the European Union has said.

Quoting Haitian officials, the EU estimated that about 250,000 have been injured, while 1.5 million have been rendered homeless.

While European nations pledged over a half-billion dollars in emergency and long-term aid, Troops, victims of the quake still struggled to find a cup of water or a handful of food, The CBS News reports.

Troops, doctors and aid workers were flowed into Haiti but help was still not reaching many victims - choked back by transportation bottlenecks, bureaucratic confusion, fear of attacks on aid convoys, the collapse of local authority and the sheer scale of the need.

Looting spread to more parts of downtown Port-au-Prince as hundreds of young men and boys clambered up broken walls to break into shops and take whatever they can find.

Especially prized was toothpaste, which people smear under their noses to fend off the stench of decaying bodies.

Many people whose houses survived are living outside for fear unstable buildings could collapse in aftershocks.

So many people have lost homes that the World Food Program is planning a tent camp for 100,000 people on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, according to the agency's country director, Myrta Kaulard.

Six days after the quake, dozens of rescue crews were still trying to rescue victims trapped under piles of concrete and debris.

"There are still people living" in collapsed buildings, U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. "Hope continues." (ANI)