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The earthquake — magnitude 7.6 — struck off the Pacific Ring of Fire territory on Wednesday.

Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) issued a warning of hazardous tsunami waves close to the territory, around 1,400km (900 miles) off the east coast of Australia.

In a statement, the PTWC said: "Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 1,000km (600 miles) of the epicentre along the coasts of Vanuatu and New Caledonia."

It added: "Tsunami waves reaching one to three metres above the tide level are possible along some coasts of New Caledonia and Vanuatu."

As many as nine aftershocks have been recorded since the earthquake, the largest measuring 7.0 magnitude.

(Image: USGS)

Authorities in New Caledonia ordered the "immediate evacuation" of people to refuge areas.

"If you don't have time to prepare your evacuation, get more than 300m away from the coast and/or get to a height of more than 12m of altitude," warned the territory's civil protection and risk management authorities.

A tsunami warning was also issued in New Zealand following the quake.

Tsunami waves have already struck at Maré Island in New Caledonia and Lenakel in Vanuatu.

The undersea quake struck off the east coast of the island in the South Pacific, said the PTWC.

It was a shallow quake — only 10km (six miles) deep — meaning the effects would have been felt more strongly on the surface.

The epicentre was around 155km (95 miles) southeast of the Loyalty Islands off New Caledonia's east coast.

Two strong quakes struck the territory — the second one being more powerful.

An earlier quake measuring 6.0 on the Richter Scale struck just four minutes earlier.

A spokesman for French mining and metals group Eramet — which operates a nickel plant in the harbour of Noumea, the territory's capital — said it had enacted a tsunami alert process.

He said: "The procedure is to ask people who work near the sea to move higher up."

Those living in threatened coastal areas were warned to "stay alert for information".

A spokeswoman for the Directorate of Civil Protection and Risk Management said: "We have set off the alarm on the exterior of New Caledonia but we don't have any immediate assessment of potential damage."

(Image: GETTY) (Image: GETTY)

New Caledonia, a collection of islands in the South Pacific, has been owned by the French since 1853.

It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault zones stretching from Alaska around the Pacific to Russia.

The US Geological Survey said in a statement: "The Loyalty Islands region is very active seismically, and the region within 250km of the December 5 earthquake has hosted 24 other magnitude 7+ earthquakes over the last century."

New Caledonia's largest recorded earthquake was magnitude 8.1, in September 1920.

Last month, the territory's 280,000 residents voted in a referendum to remain part of France.