Thousands stay in New Orleans

2005-09-08 08:10

New Orleans is still under water. (AP)

Baton Rouge - Between 10 000 and 15 000 civilians are still ensconced in the flooded and broken city of New Orleans, despite appeals by authorities for them to leave, a military officer said on Wednesday.

Earlier officials has said there were no more than 10 000 people left in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"We believe that there are about 10 to 15 000 New Orleans citizens" still in the city," Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Thibodeaux of the Louisiana National Guard told reporters in the state capital Baton Rouge.

"We are committed to stay until we rescue the last one," he said as authorities urged residents to leave to allow them to drain the flooded city and recover thousands of bodies that lie in the murky waters.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued an ultimatum to residents, some of whom are refusing to leave their homes and remaining possessions, to leave town voluntarily or be forcibly evacuated by police.

But police have said they will use minimum force to move residents and the National Guard has said it has not been asked to help clear the city of surviving residents.

- AFP