This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

A powerful earthquake off the Solomon Islands generated a tsunami up to 1.5 metres (5ft) high that damaged dozens of homes and left several people missing, presumed dead.

Authorities cancelled tsunami warnings on more distant coasts in the Pacific.

Officials on the chain of islands reported two 1.5-metre waves hitting the western side of Santa Cruz island on Wednesday, damaging 70 to 80 properties, said George Herming, a spokesman for the prime minister of the Solomon Islands. Many villagers had headed to higher ground as a precaution.

The islands' police commissioner, John Lansley, said there were unverified reports from local patrols that several people were presumed dead. "At the moment we potentially know of four, but there may of course be more."

One of those presumed dead was fishing in a canoe when the first wave hit, sweeping him out to sea, Herming said. Officials were searching for his body. Another woman was believed to have drowned when the water rushed into her village.

Four villages on Santa Cruz were hit, two of which were severely damaged, Lansley said. Other areas of the Solomons did not appear to have been seriously affected.

Officials were struggling to reach remote parts after the tsunami flooded the airstrip at the nearest airport, littering it with debris.

The tsunami formed after a magnitude-8.0 quake near the town of Lata, on Santa Cruz in Temotu, the easternmost province in the Solomons, about a three-hour flight from the capital, Honiara. Temotu has a population of around 30,000.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a tsunami of about a metre high was measured in Lata wharf – smaller waves were recorded in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The centre cancelled warnings for tsunami waves further away.

Richard Dapo, a head teacher who lives inland on an island near Santa Cruz, said he had been fielding calls from families on the coast whose homes had been damaged.

"I try to tell the people living on the coastline, 'Move inland, find a higher place. Make sure to keep away from the sea. Watch out for waves,'" he said.

He said he heard that the waves had swamped some smaller islands, although he was not aware of any deaths or serious injuries.

In Honiara, the warnings prompted residents to flee for higher ground. "People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," said Herming.

Atenia Tahu, who works for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation in Honiara, said: "People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground. But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."

Dr Rooney Jagilly, at the National Referral hospital in Honiara, said half its 200 patients were asked to leave and stay with families or friends as a precautionary measure because of the hospital's location near the shoreline. Those patients who were too immobile enough to move stayed, but the hospital remained ready to evacuate them.

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More than 50 people were killed and thousands lost their homes in April 2007 when a magnitude-8.1 quake hit the western Solomon Islands, sending waves crashing into coastal villages.

The Solomons comprise more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people. The islands lie on the "Ring of Fire" – an arc that stretches around the Pacific rim and where about 90% of the world's quakes occur.

The US geological survey said Wednesday's quake struck 81km (50 miles) west of Lata at a depth of 28.7km.