French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that he ordered the deployment of detachments of rescue workers and gendarmes to help the victims of the violent earthquake that has devastated much of Haiti, DPA reported.
Their mission, his office said in a press statement, would be to "participate in rescue operations of the local population and localize and help, if the need arises, our missing compatriots."
Sarkozy said he had reacted to the news of the earthquake "with dread and profound emotion."
French Development Minister Alain Joyandet said Wednesday that France had immediately dispatched to Haiti two aircraft carrying 60 rescue workers.
Joyandet told Europe 1 radio that the government was worried about the safety of the estimated 1,400 French citizens living in the country.
"It would be a miracle if there were no French victims, considering how many are there," he said.
Joyandet also expressed concern over the safety of about 200 foreign guests of the popular Hotel Montana, in the capital Port-au- Prince, which reportedly collapsed.
"Three hundred people were inside, and at the moment only 100 of them have come out," he said.