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PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti —A massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday morning, killing hundreds of people and shaking buildings from the neighboring Dominican Republic to Jamaica and Cuba, as the international community confronted the prospect of a major escalation in the humanitarian crisis already facing one of hemisphere's most deeply troubled nations.

Saturday's quake was stronger, though centered farther from the capital, than the devastating 2010 temblor that killed more than 220,000, prompting foreign governments and aid agencies to prepare for large numbers of dead, wounded and homeless.

Officials and witnesses reported heavy damage and fatalities dozens of miles from the epicenter, 7.4 miles northeast of Saint-Louis du Sud, where the quake struck at 8:29 a.m. Haiti's Office of Civil Protection reported at least 227 people had died — 158 of them from the hardest hit southern region — with hundreds more missing and wounded. The death toll was expected to rise.

Government officials, relief agencies and representatives from the United Nations were still assessing the damage, including via reconnaissance flights over southern and western parts of the country, as a wave of aftershocks continued to hit the country. But the sheer force of the temblor and a climbing death toll suggested a devastating new tragedy in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, which has lurched from crisis to crisis for years.