An earthquake struck western Haiti on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding more than two dozen others, according to civil protection officials.

According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude 4.9 quake occurred in the remote Grand'Anse department, almost 300 kilometers (185 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km.

Christine Monquele, the head of civil protection in Grand'Anse, told AFP that the three who perished belonged to the same family and died after their house collapsed.

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Monquele added that the office knows of 28 injured so far, detailing that the search for other casualties was still ongoing.

Haiti was hit by the quake days after devastating storms killed at least 42 and left 11 people missing.

The quake struck off the shore of the Caribbean nation's southwestern peninsula, which is prone to devastating earthquakes.

In 2010, a 7.0 earthquake killed over 200,000 people in Haiti, destroying the capital Port-au-Prince and displacing 1.5 million people.

In August 2021, a destructive 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck west Haiti starting from Petit Trou de Nippes, which is 150 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake reaped as deep as 10 km into the earth, killing almost 2,200 individuals and destroying 130,000 houses.