Solomons tsunami kills 20, leaves many missing

Solomons tsunami kills 20, leaves many missing

	Published : Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:02 By : Agencies Print this Story

HONIARA (XFN-ASIA) - The tsunami and huge earthquake that devastated the western Solomon Islands killed at least 20 people left many more missing, a senior police officer said.

'We are now of a view that here are about 20 confirmed dead overall, but I am rather fearful that the number will increase today as we get around the various locations,' said Solomons Deputy Police Commissioner Peter Marshall.

He said many more people were missing.

Entire villages were destroyed yesterday after an 8.0-magnitude quake caused a tidal wave that hit towns in the country's Western Province.

Sky news in Australia reported that hundreds of people were missing after the town of Gizo was first shaken by the earthquake, which had its epicentre just 40km away, and then by pounded by the wave.

'The main number of the deaths were in Gizo, where a number of villages were affected,' Marshall said.

Separately, police spokesman Mick Spinks said 13 villages had been destroyed.

'Virtually all the houses have been destroyed' in the affected villages, the spokesman said.

Marshall said: 'The priority this morning is to use aircraft to get around all the islands in the Western Province to see what the level of the problem is.'

He said rough terrain and poor communications were hampering efforts to assess the damage and loss of life.

Aircraft and boats with aid workers and officers on board were racing to the area to estimate damage and bring help to survivors.

The premier of Western Province saying there were up to 4,000 people camping out in Gizo.

'It's been a long night for a lot of people, in the area of Gizo in particular, there is no electricity and there have been a lot of tremors overnight and people have had to move to higher ground,' Marshall said.

The US Geological Survey recorded at least 10 quakes measuring between 5.0 and 6.2 in magnitude overnight.