[ALL UPDATES BELOW] A major earthquake struck just off the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, sparking a tsunami watch for parts of the Caribbean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, told CNN he had little information about the extent of damage from the quake, which had a reported magnitude of 7.0. But he said the suffering inflicted on the impoverished Caribbean nation was likely to be “catastrophic.”

Joseph said one government official — the only one he was able to reach — told him houses had crumbled “on the right side of the street and the left side of the street.”

The Associated Press reported that a hospital had collapsed.

The quake, which struck at 4:53PM, had a reported magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles off the coast and about 6 miles underground, according to the USGS. A 5.9 aftershock hit at 5:00PM, followed by a magnitude 5.5  at 5:12PM.

A tsunami watch was posted for Haiti and parts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, but historical data suggests a destructive, widespread tsunami was not a threat, the USGS reported.

YWN REPORTER LIVE IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: An individual who reports for YWN in the NJ area, is currently staying at a hotel in the Santo Domingo area of the Dominican Republic, and spoke with YWN just moments ago. The hotel he is staying at is approximately 200 miles from the epicenter, and tells us that it was a “terrifying experience”.

“The building shook for over a minute and we felt two aftershocks. Calm has returned to the city after about an hour, and besides for being a little “shaken up”, I am Boruch Hashem OK,” he told YWN.

UPDATE 7:50PM EST: A reporter for Reuters news agency said he saw dozens of dead and injured people in the debris, which blocked streets in the capital Port-au-Prince.

“Everything started shaking, people were screaming, houses started collapsing … it’s total chaos,” Joseph Guyler Delva said.

“I saw people under the rubble, and people killed.”

Others described seeing “a cloud of dust” above Port-au-Prince and “many, many” buildings collapsed.

“It (the house) wasn’t shaking, it was rocking. I went outside and the vehicle in the driveway was rocking, glass breaking all around the house.

“I felt the rumbling of the ground underneath us. I saw a 400sq m house which had collapsed on the ground – they were pulling an elderly woman out of the rubble.

“Down in the city, many, many, many buildings had collapsed. There’s a cloud of dust over Port-au-Prince right now.”

Many people fled onto the streets of the impoverished country in panic.

A US government official in Haiti reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

“Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken,” said Henry Bahn, a visiting official with the US Department of Agriculture.

“The sky is just grey with dust.”

Mr Bahn said there were rocks strewn all over the place and he saw a ravine where several homes had been built.

“It’s just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire,” he said.

A journalist with Haitian television station Haitipal, interviewed by telephone from Port-au-Prince, told the station that public buildings across the capital had been destroyed.

“The presidential palace, the finance ministry, the ministry of public works, the ministry of communication and culture,” were all affected by the quake, the reporter said.

He added that the parliament building and a cathedral in the capital were also crumbling.

UPDATE 9:15PM EST: The massive earthquake has destroyed the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in the country, the Agence France-Presse reports.

“The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti has been destroyed in large part. There are numerous people underneath the rubble, both dead and injured,” a local employee of the force said.

(Source: CNN / Sky News)