The gang members, armed with automatic weapons, stormed into the small town of Pont-Sondé in central Haiti at around 3 a.m. on Thursday.

Then they started setting houses on fire.“As people rushed out of their houses, they were shot,” said Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokeswoman for the United Nations Human Rights Office.

When the violence ended, at least 70 people — including 10 women and three infants — were dead, while hundreds of others ran for their lives, the U.N. office said in a statement.