The Haiti earthquake

The fault ran directly under Port-au-Prince, a city of three million with almost no building code. It lasted about thirty-five seconds.

The presidential palace, the cathedral, the parliament, the prison and most of the hospitals came down. So did the headquarters of the United Nations mission, killing a hundred and two of its staff - the worst single loss in the organisation's history.

Estimates of the dead range from a hundred thousand to three hundred thousand and no figure is agreed. A million and a half people were left with nowhere to live.

Neighbours dug with their hands and with car jacks for a week before heavy equipment arrived.