By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 24 (Reuters) - Three children were killed and two people injured when a mudslide triggered by torrential rains knocked down a wall and crushed a house in the Haitian capital, witnesses said on Thursday.

"It was raining a lot and a lot of water was coming down from the hill and then the wall collapsed and fell down on the house," Jean Demeza, who lives in the Canape-Vert area of Port-au-Prince, said.

"The three children killed were 3 months old, 6 years old and 14 years old and the two adults, who were wounded, were taken to the hospital" Demeza said.

The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti is vulnerable to flash floods and mudslides because most of its trees have been chopped down to make charcoal for cooking. The majority of its nearly 9 million people live in rickety slum dwellings.

Tropical Storm Jeanne passed north of Haiti in 2004, bringing heavy rains that buried the city of Gonaives in mud and killed 3,000. Spring floods that same year had already killed 2,000 Haitians in the south.

Last hurricane season, the passage of Tropical Storm Noel killed more than 40 people in Haiti and up to 100 in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Haiti is one of several poor nations that has been rocked in recent weeks by violent protests over soaring world food prices.

President Rene Preval has still to nominate a new prime minister for the Caribbean nation after the previous government leader was dismissed by parliament last weekend in a bid to assuage public anger over the cost of living. (Editing by Michael Christie and Bill Trott)

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