Tsunami kills at least 5 people in the Solomons

A tsunami, triggered by a powerful earthquake of 8.0 magnitude, has killed at least five people in the Solomon Islands.

The epicentre of the quake was around 600 kilometres east of the Islands’ capital Honiara.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued alerts for the Solomons and other South Pacific nations including Australia and New Zealand.

Those warnings have now been cancelled for the outlying regions.

In Auckland, New Zealand, bathers on the beach were relaxed.

One beach-goer said: “I’ll stay but if I see anything pretty unusual here – like usually the tide goes out, the water just rushes out – and I’ll be out of here! You won’t even see my legs moving, they’ll be a blur!”

The Solomon Islands are in geologically active region known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”. They were hit by a tsunami in 2007, in which at least 50 people were killed.

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