A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one housing the US and other embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies seen in the city.

The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 57 kilometres (35 miles), some 30 kilometres off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu's main island, at 12:47 pm (0147 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey.

A 5.5-magnitude aftershock struck minutes after the main quake, followed by a series of lesser tremors over the following hours.

The ground floor of a four-storey block in Port Vila used by the US, French and other embassies was completely flattened, AFP photos showed.

"There's people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past," resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.

A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, "so there's obviously some deaths there".

As well as destroying the........

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