Update | Massive quake hammers Solomon Islands as early tsunami warnings lifted
Tremor comes hard on Indonesia quake this week which kills more than 100
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands early on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties and a tsunami warning for a wide swathe of the South Pacific was later lifted.
Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office director Loti Yates said he had received reports of collapsed buildings in villages in Makira, the island closest to the epicentre of the massive undersea quake, which had initially prompted a tsunami watch as far afield as Hawaii.
“Villages that we have made contact with have evacuated, actually most of the communities that we have spoken with had already evacuated,” Yates told Reuters. “They called us from the hills, which is good.”
Yates said he had not received any reports of deaths.
The US Geological Survey downgraded the quake, which struck at 4:38 a.m. (1738 GMT Thursday), to magnitude 7.8 from an original reading of 8.0. It put the depth at around 40 kms (25 miles).