Tsunami-hit Tonga islands suffered extensive damage, more deaths feared

Tonga's small outer islands suffered extensive damage from a massive volcanic eruption and tsunami, with an entire village destroyed and many buildings missing, a Tongan diplomat said on Tuesday, raising fears of more deaths and injuries.

"People panic, people run and get injured. Possibly there will be more deaths and we just pray that is not the case," Tonga’s deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu’ihalangingie, told Reuters.

Tu’ihalangingie said images taken by New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) reconnaissance flights showed "alarming" scenes of a village destroyed on Mango island and buildings missing on nearby Atata island.

Tonga police told the New Zealand High Commission that...