Huge earthquake hits Papua New Guinea

An official warning of possible tidal waves has been issued in large areas of the western Pacific following a big earthquake in Papua New Guinea.

The tremor, measuring eight on the Richter Scale, was felt up to four hundred kilometres away.

There've been no reports of casualties, but buildings were flattened and communications disrupted in the Rabaul and Kokopo settlements on the north-east coast of New Britain.

Residents of Rabaul said the quake threw them to the floor, shook walls and waves a metre high developed in their swimming pools.

A BBC correspondent in Port Moresby says a tidal wave or Tsunami killed more than two thousand people in the region in 1998.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service