PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Armed gangs launched new attacks in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, with heavy gunfire reverberating in once-peaceful communities near the Haitian capital.

Associated Press journalists reported seeing at least five bodies in and around the suburbs, and gangs blocked entrances to some areas.

People in communities under fire called radio stations and asked for help from the Haitian National Police, which remains understaffed and outgunned by the gangs. The communities attacked in the early hours included Pétion-Ville, Meyotte, Diègue and Métivier.

“When I woke up to go to work, I found that I couldn’t leave because the neighborhood was in the hands of the bandits,” said Samuel Orelus. “There were about 30 men with heavy weapons. If the neighborhood had mobilized, we could have destroyed them, but they were heavily armed and there was nothing we could do.”

Another victim was reported on Wednesday afternoon: a police officer who was killed in broad daylight in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood known as Delmas 72, according to the police union SYNAPOHA.

As the attacks continued, the U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it had completed its first evacuation of American citizens from Port-au-Prince. More than 15 Americans were airlifted to neighboring Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

More than 30 U.S. citizens can leave Port-au-Prince daily aboard helicopter flights organized by the U.S. government, the agency said.

“We will continue to monitor in real time U.S. citizens’ demand for assistance exiting Haiti,” the department said.

On Sunday, the agency evacuated more than 30 U.S. citizens from the coastal city of Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti to Miami International Airport.

“We hope that conditions will allow people to use commercial travel options from Haiti again soon. We and the international community as well as the Haitian authorities are working to make this a reality,” the State Department said.

Also on Wednesday, a plane chartered by the Florida Department of Emergency Management evacuated 14 Florida residents, including children, from Haiti, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the state agency, at an airport in Sanford, Florida, where the passengers were expected to land.

More than 300 Floridians are in Haiti and the Florida-sponsored operation is working to get them out on future flights despite bureaucratic obstacles from the U.S. government and security threats in Haiti, Guthrie said at a news conference where he was joined by Florida’s governor .Ron DeSantis.

“We know that there are people who are really vulnerable right now who are fellow Floridians,” DeSantis said.

Wednesday’s attacks in parts of Port-au-Prince came two days after gangs rioted in the posh Laboule and Thomassin neighborhoods of Pétion-Ville, killing at least a dozen people.

The violence forced the closure of banks, schools and businesses across Pétion-Ville, which had previously been largely spared from the gangs’ attacks on February 29.

Gunmen have set fire to police stations, forced the closure of Haiti’s main international airport, stormed the country’s two largest prisons and released more than 4,000 inmates.

Numerous people were killed and around 17,000 others were left homeless as a result of the violence.

Meanwhile, Haitians await the possibility of new leadership as Caribbean officials rush to help form an interim presidential council that will be responsible for appointing an interim prime minister and a council of ministers.

A senior official from the regional trading bloc Caricom, who was not authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that Jean-Charles Moïse’s Pitit Desalin party had agreed to become a voting member of the council after had initially declined a seat. The party was the last remaining holdout, meaning the nine-member council is now fully formed, although its members have not been publicly announced.

Moïse recently formed an alliance with Guy Philippe, a former rebel leader who helped overthrow former President Jean-Bertrand Artistide and who was repatriated to Haiti in November after pleading guilty to money laundering after serving a sentence in a U.S. prison had.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was locked out of Haiti after the airport closures, has said he will resign once the council is formed.

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Associated Press writer Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana; Matthew Lee in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.