Tens of thousands of bodies still buried in rubble as Haiti ends quake search and rescue

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Tens of thousands of bodies still buried in rubble as Haiti ends quake search and rescue

    * From: AFP
    * January 23, 2010 11:12PM


HAITI has ended the search and rescue phase of the quake relief effort after 132 people were found alive under rubble.

The United Nations says, "The government has declared the search and rescue phase over,'' the UN's Organisation for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report on the relief effort. We have recovered approximately 110.000 bodies and there are still tens of thousands of bodies buried deep in the rubble and it may take 6 months or more to recover all the bodies.

"There were 132 lives rescued by international search and rescue teams,'' it added.

An 84-year-old woman and 22-year-old man were finally extracted from under the debris in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince today, 10 days after the magnitude 7.0 quake.

But UN figures suggested that the number of those located alive had diminished significantly in recent days.

The United Nations said the Haitian government declared the rescue effort over at 4pm local time on Friday (0800 AEDT Saturday).

"The government made its decision after consulting international experts, it's a sovereign decision,'' OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told Agence France-Presse.

Up to 67 search and rescue teams with 1,918 staff and 160 dogs combed the ruins of Port-au-Prince and towns and villages in south Haiti in the search for signs or life under collapsed homes and buildings.

Aid workers have already said that a record number of people for such a disaster were pulled out, while thousands more are thought to have been saved by local residents.