The top U.N. official in Haiti says gangs have escalated their violence and expanded operations outside the capital, even attacking small boats and kidnapping personnel from cargo shipping companies.

Haitian gangs are ramping up attacks on areas they do not yet control, the head of the United Nation's Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) warned on Tuesday, after days of renewed violence from an alliance of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation.

Soldiers patrol amid the sound of gunshots heard in the distance, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Oct 17. (AP)

Multiple gangs attacked several communities in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Friday, setting fire to homes and a church as bullets whizzed through the area. At least one woman was killed as gangs opened fire in Solino,

At least two women, including one who was eight months pregnant, were killed and 5,000 people displaced as Haitian gangs attacked neighborhoods in the impoverished Caribbean nation's capital, its Civil Protection agency said Monday.