The death toll in a gang attack on a small Haitian town rises to 115, a local official says

PONT-SONDÉ, Haiti (AP) — The death toll in a brutal gang attack last week on a small town in central Haiti has risen to 115, a local official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The attack on residents of Pont-Sondé on Oct. 3 was one of the biggest massacres that Haiti has seen in recent history.

Myriam Fièvre, mayor of the nearby city of Saint-Marc, said Wednesday that the toll had risen to 115 and would likely keep rising because authorities are still looking for bodies and haven’t been able to access certain areas of the town.

“We are working to make sure that the population is protected,” she said in a phone interview.

The U.N. had previously said that at least 70 people were killed last Thursday after the Gran Grif gang invaded the town located in the central Artibonite region.

More than 6,200 survivors have fled the town and temporarily settled in the coastal city of Saint-Marc, sleeping on the floors of a church, a school and a public plaza.

A local human rights group has said that Gran Grif was angry that a self-defense group was trying to limit gang activity in Pont-Sondé and prevent it from profiting off a makeshift road toll it had recently established nearby.

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Sanon reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti