PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — An earthquake shook parts of western Haiti on Tuesday, killing at least four people and injuring three dozen others, civil protection authorities said.

The magnitude 4.9 quake occurred in the isolated Grand’Anse department nearly 300 kilometres (185 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

Three of the dead “are members of the same family and were killed when their house collapsed”, Christine Monquele, head of Civil Protection in Grand’Anse, told AFP Tuesday.

“I thought the whole house was going to fall on top of me,” Eric Mpitabakana, a World Food Programme official in Jeremie, told The Associated Press by phone.

Two homes collapsed in the quake, and a key route that connects Jeremie and Les Cayes was blocked, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency.

At least 36 others were reported injured.

A crowd of people gathered around one home that collapsed as they tried to search for survivors in the rubble. They carried out at least one victim wrapped in a sheet.

Mpitabakana said things fell around his house and that he and other colleagues are contemplating sleeping outdoors if there are strong aftershocks.

“There were so many people out on the street, and a lot of panic,” he recalled of the moments after the quake struck.

Claude Prepetit, a geologist and engineer with Haiti’s Bureau of Mines and Energy, told Radio Caraibes that smaller earthquakes that occurred earlier this year in southern Haiti led to the bigger one that struck Tuesday.

Allen Joseph, a programme manager with global aid organisation Mercy Corps, said in a phone interview that schools, banks, and other institutions in Jeremie remained closed on Tuesday and that rescue teams had been searching for survivors in the rubble earlier.

He said the organisation was still evaluating the situation to determine what help might be needed.

“There was a lot of panic,” he said. “Everyone was rushing to get outside…The neighbours were yelling, ‘Go, go, go!'”

Paul Pierre, a driver for a non-governmental organisation based in Jeremie, told the AP in a phone interview that he was barely waking up when he felt the house rocking.

“Everyone ran outside with their children, their babies,” he said. “There were some houses that collapsed.”

Pierre said he remained calm and sought shelter until the earth stopped moving, adding that he’s used to earthquakes.

“We’re deeply saddened by the loss of life, destruction of property and suffering of the Haitian people caused by the earthquake,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said in New York.

The quake comes just days after heavy storms battered Haiti — the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere — leaving at least 51 people dead and 18 missing, according to a Civil Protection services toll quoted by the United Nations on Tuesday.

“The UN stands ready to work with the Haitian authorities and other partners to help ease the suffering of those in need as it relates to the earthquake and of course, the other natural disaster which is the flooding and landslides we’ve seen in the past few days,” Dujarric said.

He added that the World Food Programme is prepared to distribute some 350,000 meals and other food assistance to those in need.

But ongoing insecurity and damage to roads “are hampering relief efforts”, Dujarric said, referring in part to the country’s swirling gang violence.

The latest quake struck shortly after 5:00 am (0900 GMT) just off the coast of the south-western peninsula of the Caribbean nation which is regularly hit by destructive earthquakes.

In 2010 a massive 7.0 quake killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti, turning the capital Port-au-Prince into ruins and making 1.5 million people homeless.

In August 2021 the south-west peninsula was ravaged by an even stronger, 7.2 magnitude quake that killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed 130,000 homes.