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Scenes of panic have been reported in Vanuatu after several earthquakes sparked a tsunami warning.
"People are hysterical, trying to find out what's going on and contacting family members. Phone lines are going down as a result," an official with aid group CARE Australia told Agence France Presse.
Meanwhile New Zealand civil defence authorities have cancelled their tsunami warning, issued in the wake of several large earthquakes near Vanuatu, 2200km northwest of Auckland.
"Based on an assessment of the tsunami activity experienced up to now, we can now cancel the potential threat advisory," Civil Defence said.
People were warned to remain cautious of continuing strong currents, particularly between Hokitika and Karamea on the South Island's west coast, it said.
Earlier it was reported a tsunami measuring 4cm had been recorded near Vanuatu.
A tsunami watch was issued for the whole country this morning, but then changed to the west coast from North Cape to Hokitika, and from the North Cape to Auckland on the east coast.
The first earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, struck at 9.03am local time (11.03am NZT) and was followed by a second measuring 7.7 and a third at 7.3.
The first was at a depth of 35km and centred 295km north-northwest of the northern Vanuatu island of Espiritu Santo, according to the US Geological Survey website. New Zealand high commission consular officer in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Shane Coleman earlier told NZPA the tremors did not seem to cause any damage and so far there was no sign of a tsunami.
"It was a long and lazy quake," he said.
A tsunami warning had been put in place and most residents had headed to high ground.
"The events in Samoa have taken the complacency out of people here," Mr Coleman said.
Port Vila shut down as workers fled and hotels cleared tourists off the beaches, a resort official said.
"Shops and offices in the city have been closed and workers have run to higher ground in case of a tsunami," said Arjun Channa, general manager of the luxury Le Meridien resort in Port Vila.
"At the hotel, all guests have been cleared off the beaches and we are contacting all cruises to stop those and get the passengers to safer areas, just in case," he told AFP.
"We have evacuated everyone to higher ground - well above sealevel - and are preventing anyone from going into town," he said, before the Honolulu-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled the warning.
- NZPA
View Quake hits near Vanuatu in a larger map
