NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued \"a desperate SOS\" for the thousands of people stranded in an around the city's convention center with no food or water and fading hope.
CNN's Chris Lawrence described \"many, many\" bodies, inside and outside the facility on New Orleans' Riverwalk.
The alert comes as violence and lawlessness disrupted efforts to get help to people around the city.
Charity Hospital has halted patient evacuations because it has come under sniper fire, according to Dr. Tyler Curiel, who witnessed the incident.
\"There are multiple people dying at the convention center,\" Lawrence said. \"There was an old woman, dead in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her, pushed up against a wall. Horrible, horrible conditions.
\"We saw a man who went into a seizure, literally dying right in front of us.\"
In a statement Thursday, Nagin said that \"currently the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for (15,000 to 20,000) people.\"
He said the city would allow people to march up the Crescent City Connection to the Westbank Expressway.
People were \"being forced to live like animals,\" Lawrence said, surrounded by piles of trash and feces.
He said thousands of people were just laying in the ground outside the building -- many old, or sick, or caring for infants and small children.
Video from the scene showed a group chanting 'we want help, we want help,' as mothers tried to console their tired and hungry children.
