Tsunami alert on Pacific islands after 7.5-magnitude quake

Noumea (New Caledonia): A 7.5 magnitude quake has struck off the coast of the Pacific island of New Caledonia, prompting warnings that tsunami waves of up to three metres can reach New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

The quake struck at a depth of about 10 kilometre at 4.18 GMT, the US Geological Survey reports. The epicentre was recorded as 168km east-south-east of Tadine, a town on France's New Caledonia.

New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management though tweeted that there was no tsunami threat to the nation's coasts even though the tsunami alert issued for coasts within 1,000km, the BBC reported.

The USGS also recorded a series of aftershocks, two of them at 5.9 magnitude.

New Caledonia has a population of about 270,000 and is part of the Pacific's "ring of fire", where many earthquakes occur.