By CNN Staff <\/p>\n
updated 9:03 AM EST, Wed February 6, 2013 <\/p>\n
Map: Solomon Islands <\/p>\n
STORY HIGHLIGHTS <\/p>\n
(CNN) -- An 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami that killed five people but didn't threaten the wider region. <\/p>\n
Four elderly people and one child died after the roughly 1-meter (3-feet) high wave hit the Santa Cruz Islands, an eastern region of the Solomon Islands, said Augustine Bilve, a director at a hospital in Lata, the main town in the area. <\/p>\n
The strong waves appeared to have caused damage and disruption at the local airport and nearby villages. <\/p>\n
Bilve said that some patients were being relocated, but the hospital was intact. <\/p>\n
\"Our staff in Temotu province felt the quake and within five minutes there were a number of wave surges, which flooded the runway there,\" said Andrew Catford, the program director in the Solomon Islands for the humanitarian group World Vision. <\/p>\n
World's biggest earthquakes since 1900 <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rest is here:<\/p>\n
8.0 quake hits near Solomon Islands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By CNN Staff updated 9:03 AM EST, Wed February 6, 2013 Map: Solomon Islands STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- An 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami that killed five people but didn't threaten the wider region. Continue reading