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Samoa police: 63 dead in tsunami, toll may rise
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-30 14:13

Samoa police: 63 dead in tsunami, toll may rise
Residents walk past wreckage after a tsunami hit the village of Si'umu in Western Samoa September 30, 2009 in this photo taken by a resident of Western Samoa and forwarded to Reuters. [Agencies]

APIA, Samoa: A police official says 63 people are confirmed dead in Samoa following a tsunami that smashed the southern shore of the South Pacific nation.

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Samoan police commissioner Lilo Maiava told The Associated Press that police have confirmed 63 deaths, and officials are still searching the devastated areas, so the number of deaths might rise soon.

A powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3 spawned towering tsunami waves that swept ashore early Tuesday on Samoa and American Samoa, flooding and flattening villages, killing dozens of people and leaving scores of others missing.

At least 19 people also were killed in American Samoa.

Maiava says hundreds of injured are being treated by health workers and that people are still struggling into centers seeking treatment.