HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AFP) — A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Solomon Islands on Tuesday, with eyewitnesses reporting violent shaking that hurled items to the ground and knocked out power in parts of the capital Honiara.
"This was a big one," Joy Nisha, a receptionist with the Heritage Park Hotel in the capital Honiara, told AFP. "Some of the things in the hotel fell. Everyone seems OK, but panicky."
An AFP reporter in Honiara said the shaking lasted for around 20 seconds.
There were no immediate reports of serious structural damage, but power was out in some areas of the city and people were rushing from their offices and fleeing to higher ground.
"I was really scared because this is the first time I felt this kind of earthquake," a manager at the Pacific Casino Hotel, who asked not to be named, said.
"The building was really violently shaking," she said. "It was really strong, it made you move side to side."
Dozens of staff and guests fled the building to the relative safety of the car park, hoping not to be hit by debris on the way out.
The nation's attorney general, John Muria, posted images on social media of office files that had spilled from several large metal filing cabinets.
The United States Geological Survey revised the earthquake's magnitude down from an initial 7.3.
The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers, just off the southwest coast of Guadalcanal island.
