Five people died in the Solomon Islands Wednesday after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit the South Pacific nation and caused a tsunami, a news report said. The deaths were confirmed by Augustine Pilve, the head of nursing at Lata Hospital in the capital of Temotu province, Radio New Zealand reported. Staff were treating casualties and more were expected. The tsunami was 90 centimeters high in Lata, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said. The quake reportedly caused serious damage to villages in the Santa Cruz Islands, which form part of Temotu province, the report was quoted as saying by DPA. It struck at 0112 GMT about 50 kilometres west of the Santa Cruz Islands, which lie about 400 kilometres east of the main island group, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caldedonia. The USGS initially gave the depth of the quake as 5.8 kilometres, but later revised it to 28.7 kilometres. The tremor was followed within an hour by two aftershocks with magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.6.
