Wednesday late morning, in downtown Port-au-Prince, a former production plant of soft drink, abandoned for years and heavily damaged by the earthquake of January 2010 has partially collapsed causing 8 victims and triggering panic among residents.

"Four bodies were removed from the rubble and we transported four other individuals seriously injured at the General Hospital of Port-au-Prince," confirmed the coordinator of Civil Protection.

The Mayor of Port-au-Prince Youri Chevry who went to the scene of the accident where rescue teams in the rubble, were searching for survivors, said all the victims were inside the building at the time of the accident, seeking scrap materials, including rebar for resale, when the internal structures of the four-storey building collapsed while leaving intact a part of the facade.

The Mayor Chevry, expressed his regret at the incident and announced a demolition campaign in the capital, of all buildings severely damaged by the earthquake of 2010 to avoid the repetition of such an accident.

According to Guillaume Albert Moléon, the Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior who do not know how many people can be in the building at the time of the accident, this old plant was one of the buildings in the capital "being demolished".

In the afternoon of heavy equipment were on site to begin clearing rubble in the presence of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) and the municipality of Port-au-Prince.

TB/ HaitiLibre