Shocking pictures show the devastation caused by a tsunami in Tonga which claimed the life of a British woman at the weekend.
The UN has detected a distress signal from isolated low-lying islands as rescuers desperately assess the damage caused.
This morning Tonga's government said all homes had been destroyed on Mango island, while only two remained standing on Fonoifua island, with residents being evacuated.
Video taken by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) shows alarming damage on the ground - but with the South Pacific island nation largely cut off from communications networks, assessing the scale is hard.
The official death toll currently stands at two, police in Tonga said, but it may be higher, authorities fear.
A thick layer of ash blankets the islands, and although Fua'amotu International Airport, was not damaged in Saturday's eruption and tsunam, heavy ashfall is preventing hampering international relief efforts.
Tonga's deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, said: "People panic, people run and get injuries. Possibly there will be more deaths and we just pray that is not the case."
Australia's Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said Tongan officials were hoping to evacuate people from the isolated, low-lying Ha'apai islands group and other outer islands where conditions were "very tough, we understand, with many houses being destroyed in the tsunami".
The UN has reported a distress signal was detected in Ha'apai, where Mango is located.
The Tongan navy reported the area was hit by waves estimated to be 5-10 metres, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"It is very alarming to see the wave possibly went through Atata from one end to the other," said Mr Tu'ihalangingie.
The NZDF images, which were posted unofficially on Facebook, also showed tarpaulins being used as shelter on Mango island.
Tragically British national Angela Glover, 50, was killed in the tsunami as she tried to rescue the dogs she looked after
at a rescue shelter, her brother said, the first known death in the disaster.
Ms Glover's brother, Nick Eleini, told reporters the family has been left "devastated" by her death.
Speaking outside the family home in Sussex, her brother described his sister as "the centre of our family".
“She was beautiful. She was a ray of sunshine," he said.
"She would just walk into a room and lighten the room up and she loved her life, both when she was working in London and then she achieved her life’s dream of going to work in the South Pacific.
“She always wanted to swim with whales - that was a childhood ambition and that is what drove her to Tonga but she loved her life there and we are so proud of her achievements in Tonga with both her and James starting a business and creating a life there are her charity work with Tonga Animal Welfare Society. She was so committed to it.
“She loved animals and dogs particularly. The uglier the dog, the more she loved it.
"We would laugh at her when she sent us these photos on Facebook of dogs she had rescued.
"She was a lovely girl and she was the centre of our family. We’re just broken.”
The New Zealand's foreign ministry said two ships, HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa, had departed New Zealand carrying bulk water supplies, survey teams and a helicopter.
Tonga is expected to set out its formal requests for aid today, said Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
She said: "The impact not just of the inundation, but of the extraordinary volume of ash which is covering everything, plus
the communications issues, of course, makes this very difficult."
Tonga has remained largely cut off from the world since the eruption which cut its main undersea communications
cable.
Subcom, a U.S. based private company contracted to repair various subsea cables in the Asia-Pacific, said it was working
with Tonga Cable Ltd to repair the cable that runs from Tonga to Fiji.
