Doctors in Port-au-Prince try to save lives as the bloodshed accelerates in the face of a powerless international security force

It was mid-morning in central Port-au-Prince and already two shooting victims had been rushed into the hospital past a mural instructing visitors to leave machetes and rifles outside.

The two men – a 60-year-old accountant and a 29-year-old electrician – sat in the trauma centre’s “shock room” being patched up as the city around them fell apart.