By Atayi Babs
A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 struck off Papua New Guinea, official monitors said, and a tsunami warning was issued soon after.
The quake hit at a depth of 65 kilometres, some 54 kilometres from the nearest city of Kokopo Panguna on New Britain island and 789 kilometres from the capital Port Moresby, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said “based on preliminary earthquake parameters … hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 1,000 kilometres of the earthquake epicentre along the coasts of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands”.
No destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami was expected, it said.
More to follow.
