Haitian gang surrounds hospital, traps people inside

Gangs have been torching homes around the hospital. PIC/AP

A heavily armed gang surrounded a hospital in Haiti on Wednesday, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police rescued them, according to the director of the medical centre, who pleaded for help via social media.

The Fontaine Hospital Center in the capital of Port-au-Prince is considered an oasis and a lifeline in a community overrun by gangs that have unleashed increasingly violent attacks against each other and residents. People who live in the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum are routinely raped, beaten and killed.

The hospital founder and director, Jose Ulysse, said that gangs were torching homes around the hospital and preventing people inside from leaving. Haiti's National Police responded to Ulysse's call for help and evacuated 40 children and 70 patients to a private home. Among those evacuated were children on oxygen.

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