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Deadly tsunami strikes in Pacific

113 killed; thousands flee to high grounds; 8-magnitude undersea quake recorded

AFP, Apia
Towering tsunamis churned up by a huge earthquake slammed into the Samoan islands on hresday, killing at least 113 people as they wiped out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.
Monster waves that witnesses and officials said measured between three and 7.5 metres high pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and Western Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake struck in the early morning.
While the quake toppled buildings and sent thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami approached, many others were hit by the walls of water that swept people and cars out to sea and obliterated coastal settlements.
US President Barack Obama called the incident in the outlying US territory of American Samoa a "major disaster" and vowed "aggressive” action to help survivors.
"I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will pro-ride the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response," he said.
Samoa's Prime Minister Tliilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was "shocked beyond belief."
"So much has gone. So many people are gone," he told the Australian news agency AAP "I'm so shocked, so saddened by till theloss."
The tsunamis swept across the Pacific, battering Samoa where hospital workers said it killed at least 84 people, American "My family own the Taufua Beach Fales and we have confirmation that nine members of our family have perished, four of them children and many more missing," the bereaved relative told Australia's public broadcaster.
"The tourists haven't been accounted for either."
Amateur video footage showed villages that had been completely obliterated, homes reduced to shards of metal and wood, while cars were stuck in treetops where they had been hurled by the force of the tsunami.
Samoa's deputy prime minister MisaTelefoni said his tiny country's tourism hotspot was "devastated" by the tsunami which left residents and holidaymakers with little time to flee.
"We've heard that most of the resorts are totally devastated on that side of the island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of all that coast," he said.
l\vo of tire country's most popular resorts, Sinalei Reef Resort and Coconuts Beach Resort, off the west coast of the main island of Upolu, had been hit hard, he told AAP.
Australia said at least two of its citizens, including a six-year-old girl, were dead while Seoul said two Koreans were also killed. One person from New Zealand was also feared dead.
Apia, capital of the independent state of Samoa and nearly 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) from Auckland in New Zealand, was evacuated as officials scrambled to cet
thousands of residents to higher ground.
Officials in American Samoa, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Samoa, said the death toll of 22 was expected to climb.
"It could take a week or so before we know the full extent," Michael Sala, Homeland Security director in American Samoa, told AFP.
Waves around 25 feet (7.5-metres) high did most of the damage as they swept ashore about 20 minutes after the earthquake, demolishing buildings in coastal areas, he said.
Witnesses said cars were swept out to sea and buildings were destroyed in what the US territory's Congress delegate said was a scene of "devastation."
The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies after the devas-tating earthquake, which struck at 6:48 am (1748 GMT) at a depth of 18 kilometres (11 miles), 195 kilometres south of Apia.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami alert over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled.
The walls of moving water were so powerful that small tsunami waves were able to reach the shores of Japan, thousands of kilometres (miles) away.
The United States, Australia and New Zealand all made preparations to send emergency help to the ravaged region that is home to more than 241,000 oeonle.