'Haiti quake may have killed 300,000'

The United Nations mission head in Haiti estimates the death toll from the January 12th Port-au-Prince earthquake at 250,000 to 300,000.

The Haitian government had previously announced a projected figure of over 220,000.

Edmond Mulet said on Thursday that 300,000 were also injured and more than one million people have been left homeless.

The UN official also urged people to "not underestimate the size of the task and the challenges that Haiti faces."

He added that the impoverished nation "is ... on the right path" towards reconstruction, and that he was showing "prudent optimism."

The 7.0-magnitude quake devastated the capital Port-au-Prince, causing a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions in a country already considered the poorest in the Americas.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=124131§ionid=351020706.