Megan Janetsky, The Associated Press

HAVANA – Just weeks after the United States and Canada sent armored vehicles to Haiti to support efforts against violent groups, Haitian police briefly lost control of one of the vehicles in an incident that killed at least two people , officials said.

The incident is testament to the difficult road ahead for the Caribbean country, crippled by organized gang warfare and grappling with its worst crisis in years.

A police station in southern Haiti was stormed by mobs on Thursday morning, police said on a local radio broadcast. When authorities sent reinforcements in armored vehicles to check on the violent groups, police said one of the vehicles stopped working.

But an official in Haiti with direct knowledge of the situation said the vehicle was trapped in a sand pit and rushed by miners waving Molotov cocktails, said Renata Segura, deputy director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the NGO International Crisis Group.

Ms Segura, who monitors the situation in Haiti for the NGO that tries to prevent or resolve conflicts, said she was not authorized to reveal the officer’s identity.

Officers exited the vehicle to avoid an armed conflict, she said, and video authenticated by The Associated Press shows young men cheering surrounding the beige vehicle, which has “POLICE” written on it as they shoot automatic weapons into the sky and record videos on their phones.

The armored vehicle was part of a fleet sent last month by the United States and Canada as part of a joint effort to help, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “cut the knot in the ‘insecurity’ that was allowing the gangs to stress a humanitarian crisis in Haiti.

Later in the day, police eventually regained control of the vehicle and the police station, but ended in the deaths of two suspected gang members. Two police officers were shot and injured.

The incident came days after one of the main organized gangs and its leader, Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer nicknamed “Barbecue,” lifted the blockade of the country’s main fuel depot in Port-au-Prince.

The blockade has contributed to unrest in Haiti, which has been reeling since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The chaos spurred a huge migratory exodus from the island.