Haiti earthquake death toll rises to 2,207

The death toll in the major earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14 has risen to 2,207, authorities said on Sunday, as attacks on aid convoys have complicated efforts to bring relief to survivors.

“New bodies have been found in the south,” said a statement from the country’s civil protection office, adding that 344 people remain missing and 12,268 have been listed as injured. The previously reported toll was 2,189 dead.

Search-and-rescue workers are continuing to pick through the jumbled mounds of debris left by the powerful 7.2-magnitude quake, but hopes of finding survivors were fading by the hour.

Haitian authorities said nearly 600,000 people were directly affected by the disaster and are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

But efforts to deliver food, water and medical supplies to quake victims have been complicated not just by road and bridge damage but by attacks on aid convoys by so far unidentified gangs.