The waves, although only 50 cm, could be dangerous for vessels and people working on the shoreline. In Samoa the waves destroyed entire villages and the toll is so far close to 100 dead.

Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Japanese Met Office launched a tsunami warnings along its entire eastern Pacific coast this morning, after the earthquake and the tsunami in Samoa that left at least 100 people dead.  The Met Office has warned however that the waves could reach only up to 50 cm. The first waves could arrive by 11 (local time). According to experts, waves up to 50 cm can be dangerous for people who work on the coast and on shipping vessels.

Il terremoto di magnitudo 8.3, e il conseguente tsunami, è avvenuto alle 7 del mattino (ora locale) a circa 196 km a sudovest di Apia, la capitale delle Samoa. Esso ha provocato una serie di ondate alte diversi metri.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.3, and the resulting tsunami, occurred at 7 am (local time) at about 196 km southwest of Apia, the capital of Samoa. It caused a series of waves several meters high.

Ausegalia Mulipola, from the Samoa Office for Emergencies, announced that "there could be up to 100 dead”. The area south of Upolu, the main island, is the most affected: "There is no news - he adds - of villages where most of the houses have been swept into the sea ... Some areas have been destroyed and the tsunami swept a lot of sand on shore, covering many corpses. We need special machines to search for bodies buried under the sand".

On 26 December 2004 a tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed 230 thousand people across 11 nations.

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