Haiti quake death toll surpasses 111,000 as search-rescue phase ends

More than 111,000 people died in last week's massive earthquake in Haiti, the government announced, even as it officially ended the search-and-rescue phase of its response to the disaster.

The government's figure, released by the United Nations late Friday, is the first precise death toll for the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck on January 12. It said 111,481 people were confirmed dead.

It is the worst death toll from an earthquake since the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the second-highest death toll from an earthquake in more than three decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Some 609,000 people have also been left homeless in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.