Haitian authorities estimated on Friday a death toll of 140,000 following Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Haiti's secretary of state for public safety Aramick Louis said they had buried 40,000 people and believed there were 100,000 on top of that, Reuters reported today.

There are a lot of people under the rubble, Louis said, according to the news agency.

The figure is far higher than the Red Cross Federation's estimate of 50,000 dead released yesterday.

The death toll comes amid reports that anger and desperation were turning into violence among people in Haiti's capital city following the disaster. Louis said bandits started to operate in some areas and people were robbing and stealing.

That is wrong, he said.

Earth Earthquake