Food aid looting erupts in Haiti

In the city of Gonaives many have had little food since last Sunday

UN peacekeepers in the flood-ravaged Haitian city of Gonaives have fired into the air to stop hungry people grabbing food from aid trucks.

One boy was struck and killed by a relief truck on Saturday as crowds surged on a warehouse storing food aid.

The government says the number of people killed in the flooding which followed Hurricane Jeanne has climbed to more than 1,500 across the island.

Officials say they are planning to evacuate parts of Gonaives.

Extra peacekeepers

Roseline Corvil of aid agency Care International told the Associated Press that the 13-year-old boy was hit as the driver of the truck tried to leave.

In another part of the city of 200,000, crowds pulled sacks of rice and beans from trucks in a convoy on its way to a UN warehouse.

Many have had little food since the floods struck a week ago and scuffles broke out in the streets as residents fought over sacks of rice and grabbed food aid from each other's hands.

The BBC's Dan Griffiths in Gonaives says that, at the moment, the UN is all that is stopping the anger exploding into violence.

UN peacekeepers - who number about 600 in Gonaives - say 140 Uruguayan soldiers are being sent to reinforce their number, AP reports.

Security tense

"We have a lot of problems with distribution of aid and we have security problems," the Haitian Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said according to Reuters news agency.

HAITI FACTS Poorest country in Western Hemisphere 80% live below absolute poverty threshold Malnutrition widespread Severe or moderate stunting affects 47% of under fives *Data from UN World Food Programme Haiti bewildered and scarred Haiti's vicious circle In pictures: Haiti floods

Planeloads of food supplies have arrived at Port-au-Prince, but delivery has been delayed by security fears and water-logged roads.

Thousands of blankets, kerosene stoves and other supplies were being stored in a warehouse in the capital, The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

"We don't want it to get looted," spokesman Marko Kokic told AP.

"And we don't want any distribution where the fittest and the strongest can push their way in and take everything."

Aid groups and international humanitarian agencies say they have delivered about 120 tonnes of food aid to Gonaives and the north and northwest, Reuter reports.

Officials have drawn up plans to evacuate Gonaives in sections to allow workers to clean and disinfect the mud-clogged city.