6 killed in Haiti after government car loses control, police say

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti >> A Haitian government car went out of control into a group of people today, killing at least six and further inflaming unrest in a capital wracked by violent protests.

Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune told the Associated Press that one of the car’s wheels had come off. Protesters later set fire to the car, which remained on the scene in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Louis-Jeune said he didn’t know how many people died, but an AP journalist on the scene counted the bodies of four men and two women on the ground.

The deaths come as Haiti faces a fourth day of protests to demand that President Jovenel Moise resign for not investigating allegations of corruption in the previous government over Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan subsidized energy program.

At least eight people have died in the protests, not including those hit by the car.

Schools and government offices remained closed today, as did many banks and grocery stores. However, hundreds of people stood outside one bank that opened in the neighborhood of Petionville, and public buses were running again.

Government trucks also cleared many streets blocked by barricades of tires, although some remained burning in parts of the capital.