Haiti on brink of widespread unrest

Desperate earthquake survivors took to the streets in shattered Port-au-Prince today in search of food and water as aid organisations struggled to get supplies through.

Fears spread of unrest among the Haitian people in their fourth day without help.

Looters roamed in gangs, young men and boys with machetes in search of food and water.

"They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house.

Meanwhile hard-pressed government workers were burying thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake.

Increasingly the focus fell on the daunting challenge of getting aid to survivors.

United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said people's anger was rising that aid has not been distributed quickly, and warned convoys to add security to guard against looting.

Ordinary Haitians sensed the potential for an explosion of lawlessness. "We're worried that people will get a little uneasy," said attendant Jean Reynol, 37, explaining his petrol station was ready to close immediately if violence breaks out.

"People who have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation," a UN humanitarian spokeswoman said. "If they see a truck with something, or if they see a supermarket which has collapsed, they just rush to get something to eat."

The quake's destruction of Port-au-Prince's main prison complicated the security situation. Around 4,000 prisoners had escaped

The UN World Food Programme said looting of its food supplies long stored in Port-au-Prince appeared to have been limited, contrary to earlier reports. It said it would start handing out 6,000 tons of food aid recovered from a damaged warehouse in the city's Cite Soleil slum.

Hundreds of bodies were stacked outside the city morgue, and limbs of the dead protruded from the rubble of crushed schools and homes.

A few workers were able to free people who had been trapped under the rubble for days. But others attended to the grim task of using bulldozers to transport loads of bodies.

Haitian President Rene Preval said that over a 20-hour period, government crews had removed 7,000 corpses from the streets and morgues and buried them in mass graves.

For the long-suffering people of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, shock was giving way to despair.

"We need food. The people are suffering. My neighbours and friends are suffering," said Sylvain Angerlotte, 22. "We don't have money. We don't have nothing to eat. We need pure water."

From Europe, Asia and the Americas, more than 20 governments, the UN and private aid groups were sending planeloads of high-energy biscuits and other food, tons of water, tents, blankets, water-purification gear, heavy equipment for removing debris, helicopters and other transport. Hundreds of search-and-rescue, medical and other specialists also headed to Haiti.

Governments and government agencies have pledged about $400m (€278.2m) of aid.

But the global helping hand was slowed by a damaged seaport and an airport that turned away civilian aid planes for eight hours yesterday because of a lack of space and fuel.

At Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport, a stream of US military cargo planes landed, but they had to circle for an hour before getting clearance because the quake destroyed the control tower and radar control.

Aid workers have been blocked by debris on inadequate roads and by survivors gathered in the open out of fear of aftershocks from the 7.0-magnitude quake and re-entering unstable buildings.

Across the sprawling, hilly city, people milled about in open areas, hoping for help, sometimes setting up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble.

Small groups could be seen burying dead by roadsides. Other dust-covered bodies were dragged down streets, toward hospitals where relatives hoped to leave them. Countless dead remained unburied.

Engineers from the UN mission have begun clearing some main roads, and law-and-order duties have fallen completely to its 3,000 international troops and police.

A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission, said Haitian police "are not visible at all", no doubt because many had to deal with lost homes and family members.