Rescue services have been working through the night trying to reach survivors trapped in the rubble of a school which collapsed on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, killing at least 50 people.
Its believed that about 500 children and teachers were in the school at the time. A kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school were on the site.
A United Nations official says the rescuers are doing their best to find survivors.
Rescue teams from the French island of Guadeloupe and the United States were on their way to help.
As rescuers clawed at the rubble with tools or their bare hands, Matt Marek, head of programmes for the American Red Cross in Haiti, said he thought the death toll would go much higher.
UN peacekeepers and members of the Haitian Red Cross were at the scene, trying to create an access route through the crowds so UN military engineers could approach.
"It's like an earthquake," said Brazilian Maj Gen Carlos dos Santos Cruz, commander of UN troops in Haiti.
"You have a lot of people under the debris. We don't know how many exactly but there are a lot of people there because they were attending school."
While there was no official comment on the possible cause of the collapse, reports say the upper floor of the school was still under construction.
