Tsunami attacks Solomon Islands

SYDNEY - A tsunami has generated off the Solomon Islands with potential to be destructive near the epicentre and could pose a threat to more distant coasts, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center claimed at 2:48 GMT.

Tan Jingquan, a Chinese businessman currently at Honiara, the capital of the island state, told Xinhua that "I called my friends in the center of the disaster. He said that numbers of stores and residences near the earthquake epicenter have been flooded. But Honiara is not affected badly due to the long distance away from the epicenter. There is no report yet about death and wounded."

A tsunami of around 90 centimeters was recorded in Lata, while smaller waves hit in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

Local police said that several Solomon Islands villages had been destroyed by the quake.

The tsunami warning also covers Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Kosrae, Kiribati, and Wallis and Futuna. Fiji's Seismology Observatory in conjunction of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is issuing respective bulletins for every thirty minutes until cancellation.

A magnitude 8.0 quake struck at the Santa Cruz Islands on Wednesday, which are part of the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands, from a depth of 5.8 kilometers.