PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake killed at least 10 people in Haiti on Saturday, officials said, after the tremor knocked down buildings in the north of the impoverished Caribbean country.

The police chief for the northwest region, Jackson Hilaire, said seven people died in Port-de-Paix, the northern town near the epicenter, while Interior Minister Reynaldo Brunet said three people had died further south in the town of Gros-Morne.