EIGHT people, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, remained missing today after gunmen stormed an orphanage in Haiti at the weekend.

Authorities scrambled to relocate dozens of children and staff from the Saint-Helene orphanage, run by Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs, an international charity with offices in Mexico and France. The orphanage cares for more than 240 children, according to its website.

No-one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack early on Sunday. The area is controlled by a gang federation known as Viv Ansanm, which this year the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Among those abducted was Gena Heraty, an Irish missionary who has worked in Haiti since 1993 and oversaw the orphanage's special needs programme for children and adults.

Her family issued a statement on Monday, saying that they were “absolutely devastated” by Sunday’s kidnappings and adding: “The situation is evolving and deeply worrying.”

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said in a statement that the kidnapping of Ms Heraty and the others was “deeply worrying.” He called for their immediate release.

At least 175 people were reported kidnapped in Haiti from April to the end of June of this year, with 37 per cent of the abductions occurring in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations said a majority of those kidnappings were blamed on the Grand Ravine and Village de Dieu gangs, which form part of the Viv Ansanm federation.