Solomon Islands Tsunami Leaves 28 Dead

Medical teams and disaster relief were being sent today to the west coast of the Solomon Islands after a powerful tsunami washed away hundreds of homes, killing at least 28 people.

The head of disaster relief in the south Pacific nation's worst-hit province said 28 bodies had now been recovered, but warned that the death toll was expected to rise significantly.

Among the dead were a bishop and three worshippers killed when a wave hit a church during an ordination ceremony on the island of Simbo, church officials said.

A spokesman for the country's national disaster centre said more than 900 houses had been destroyed, with around 5,000 people made homeless, around half of these in Gizo, the biggest town in the area swamped by the tsunami, which struck yesterday morning local time following a major undersea earthquake.

Outlying villages still to be reached were thought to have fared far worse, spokesman Julian Makaa told Australia's ABC television.

Teams of doctors and nurses were due to fly out of the capital city, Honiara, to set up temporary medical centres in Gizo and on nearby islands.

The tsunami, described as being the height of a two-storey building, was caused by an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of at least 8.0. More than 25 aftershocks subsequently shook the region, including two of magnitude 6.2.

The first television footage of the devastated region, taken from a helicopter, showed dozens of tin and thatched roof buildings collapsed along a muddy foreshore, with local people picking through the debris.

With few supplies left, the humanitarian situation would quickly become desperate, officials warned. There was no food available at all in Gizo and another western town, Noro, said Alfred Maesulia, a government spokesman in Honiara, adding: "Some settlements have been completely wiped out by the waves."

New Zealand's government said it was sending a military C-130 cargo plane to the islands carrying tents, tarpaulins and food for several hundred people.

The quake struck 220 miles northwest of Honiara at about 9.40pm BST on Sunday, and sparked a tsunami alert around the Pacific.

Beaches along Australia's east coast were closed and ferry services halted in Sydney harbour amid fears of a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster. Roads in Australia's north were gridlocked as residents fled the coast. The alert was lifted about nine hours later, with damage confined to the immediate area around the quake.

While popular with foreign tourists, notably divers, the Solomon Islands, an archipelago of more than 200 islands with a population of about 550,000 people, is a country characterised by extreme poverty, with an annual income per capita of less than £300.