The president of Haiti, René Préval, told international media that the mayhem and destruction caused in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.0 tremor was "un­imaginable". Haiti has been brought to its knees and the country is calling for international help and support.

Official and rescue personnel fear that the death toll from the devastating quake could escalate to more than 100 000. The scenes of apocalypse are everywhere – destruction, flattened houses, thousands of bodies on the street and calls for help from people still trapped under the rubble.

There are up to five Bulgarians in Haiti according to Focus news agency, citing eyewitness reports from a Bulgarian in the capital city on January 14 2010. Ralitsa Konstantinova said that , a friend of hers, 28-year-old Alexander Seymenov, and two Bulgarians working with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti – Ivan Radev and another person known only as "Vasil" – are currently in Port-au-Prince.

According to Focus, all four Bulgarians are accounted for and in good health. They all have internet access, and have notified their families of their condition. The fifth person is unaccounted for but he is not believed to have been in the area immediately affected by the earthquake.

For the moment, it is confirmed that 16 British nationals are among the thousands missing, the UK Times said on January 14 2010. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander told the Times that "only half of the 32 Britons living in Port-au-Prince had made contact with the UK's ambassador to Haiti".

Meanwhile, traumatised Haitians last night spent their second night in the open, fearing more devastating aftershocks. Their situation was exacerbated further by the fact that most of them have no help or provisions and there is "no help in sight".

According to the BBC, US aid planes have already landed at the capital's airport and US naval ships are on their way to the beleaguered area.

Additionally, help is arriving from many EU states, as well as Russia, China and Latin-American countries.

The earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, centered about 16 km from the capital Port-au-Prince, Haiti, at 4:53pm local time on 12 January 2010 and was reportedly the strongest to hit the country for more than two centuries.