Three shot dead as gunmen attack Haiti hospital

Police officers patrol a street after attack on a public hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

At least three people died when armed men in Haiti opened fire at journalists, police and medical staff during a briefing to announce the reopening of the country's biggest public hospital.

Two journalists and a police officer were reportedly shot dead, while others were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the general hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The site had been recaptured by Haiti's government in July, after being occupied and destroyed by gangs.

The Viv Ansanm gang alliance, which controls much of the city, has owned up to the attack.

Pictures posted online appear to show several people injured or dead inside the building.

Journalists were waiting for the arrival of Health Minister Lorthe Blema when the shooting began.

Journalists Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean were killed during the attack, Robest Dimanche, spokesman for the Online Media Collective, told AFP news agency.

Other journalists were wounded, he added.

An officer was also killed, police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP.

"It felt like a terrible movie," Dieugo André, a photojournalist who witnessed the violence, was quoted as saying by The Haitian Times.

"I have the blood of several injured journalists on my clothes."

In an online video claiming the attack, the Viv Ansanm gang alliance said it had not authorised the reopening of the hospital, which they occupied and destroyed in March.

The head of Haiti's presidential transitional council, Leslie Voltaire, said: "We express our sympathy to all the victims' families, in particularly to the Haiti National Police and all the journalists' associations.

"We guarantee them that this act will not remain without consequences."

People in Haiti continue to suffer with unbearable levels of gang violence, despite the installation of a new transition government in April and the deployment of an international force led by Kenyan police officers six months ago.

Haiti has been engulfed in a wave of gang violence since the assassination in 2021 of the then-president, Jovenel Moïse.

An estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince is still under gang control.

The UN says that as many as 5,000 people have been killed in violence in Haiti this year alone, and the country is now on the verge of collapse.