BBC- At least 2,189 people are known to have died in Haiti in Saturday’s powerful earthquake, authorities there said late on Wednesday.

Rescue workers have managed to pull 34 people alive from the rubble but many are still missing after the 7.2-magnitude quake.

The search for survivors has been hampered by heavy rains brought this week by Tropical Storm Grace.

Nearly 10,000 people have been injured and hospitals were left overwhelmed.

The UN says about 500,000 children now have limited or no access to shelter, safe water and food.

“Countless Haitian families who have lost everything due to the earthquake are now living literally with their feet in the water due to the flooding,” said Bruno Maes, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative in the country.

Many have been staying in make-shift tents erected on a football field in the city of Les Cayes, one of the areas worst affected by the quake.

“Yesterday [Tuesday] evening, I took shelter near a church, but when I heard the ground shake again, I ran to return here,” city resident Magalie Cadet told AFP news agency.

She said so few structures remained standing in Les Cayes that people had to relieve themselves on the streets.

Haitians living in more remote areas said aid was yet to reach them.

“We have the will to do everything but we don’t have the money or resources,” a pastor told Reuters news agency.

The UN’s World Food Programme said it was working closely with the Haitian authorities to provide assistance to survivors.

And the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that following negotiations, armed gangs – who have previously attacked people travelling to Les Cayes from the capital – had promised to let an aid convoy through.

But the heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Grace have made many of the roads in the more mountainous regions impassable.

The south-west of Haiti appears to have suffered the worst of the damage from the quake, especially around Les Cayes.

The earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is in power until a fresh presidential election can be held, has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to “show solidarity”.

Haiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters in the past, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

The deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure and economy.

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LES CAYES, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Tremors shook buildings late on Wednesday in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes, a Reuters witness said, a few days after a devastating earthquake killed almost 2,200 people across the Caribbean nation and injured thousands more.

A police officer on patrol in Les Cayes said there were no immediate reports of further deaths or damage in the region, which is still reeling from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday morning. read more

Across the seaside city, families were sleeping on mattresses in the streets.

Haitian authorities said late on Wednesday that the official death toll from the quake had risen to 2,189.

The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti is still recovering from a 2010 quake that killed over 200,000.