Weeping parents dig for survivors as police warn preacher may face charges

By Chris Green

A school has collapsed in Haiti, killing at least 30 people and trapping many under the rubble.

Volunteers armed only with shovels and axes worked to free the trapped students, delivering water to those still out of reach. The school, on the outskirts of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, was regularly attended by 500 students from nursery age upwards, but it is not known exactly how many were inside at the moment the building gave way.

As the search wore on, more than 85 people were pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital, some with life-threatening injuries. At the scene, weeping parents searched desperately for their children while bodies of students lay crushed under blocks of concrete. The roads around the school became jammed with people looking for their loved ones, forcing some rescuers to be flown in by helicopter. Major General Carlos dos Santos Cruz, the commander for UN troops in Haiti, described the scene as “like an earthquake”.

“My son who is 15, he’s dead. He’s my only son,” sobbed Josiane Dandin. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Another woman screamed for her missing 12-year-old daughter. “I don’t know if she is dead or alive,” she said.

Jimmy Germain, a teacher at the school, said that the building had suffered a partial collapse eight years ago and many feared it had never been properly rebuilt. He added that some people living nearby had left the area, worried that the structurally unsound building would destroy their homes if it collapsed again.

Police commissioner, Francene Moreau, said the preacher in charge of the church-run La Promesse school could face criminal charges.

The third storey of the building was still under construction, and it is thought that a structural defect, rather than the recent heavy rains, caused the collapse.

UN peacekeepers worked with the police to clear a path for military engineers from Brazil, Chile and Ecuador to gain access to the site. Haitian President, Rene Preval, visited the scene.

The tragedy comes as the people of Haiti continue to struggle with the destruction brought by four tropical storms and hurricanes that hit in rapid succession this year, killing more than 800 people and destroying 60 per cent of the crop harvest.