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Tsunami toll may reach 100 in Western Samoa: officials

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-30 09:35

SYDNEY: A tsunami that hit Western Samoa may have killed up to 100 people, with many more injured, Samoa's disaster management office said on Wednesday.

Assistant Chief Executive Ausegalia Mulipola said teams were still searching for victims of the tsunami, with reports some villages in the country's southeast had been destroyed.

A series of tsunamis smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa after a huge undersea quake off American Samoa. The death toll in American Samoa was officially 14, but could rise, said officials.

The quake prompted a Pacific-wide tsunami warning, which was later canceled.