**A major relief operation has begun in the Samoan islands, which were hit by a tsunami that killed at least 113 people and wiped out villages and resorts.**Rescue officials said planes carrying medics, food, water and other supplies were heading to the stricken Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
They said tens of thousands of people need help in villages swamped by waves triggered by a huge earthquake.
The United Nations said it was sending an emergency team to Samoa.
According to the latest reports, at least 83 people were killed in Samoa, more than 25 in American Samoa and at least six in Tonga.
Samoan officials say it could take a week before the full extent of the damage is known.
Major disaster
Amateur video footage showed villages destroyed, homes flattened, and cars lodged in treetops.
“So much has gone. So many people are gone. I don’t think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster”
Tuila’epe Sailele Malielegaoi
Samoan Prime Minister
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Residents and tourists fled to higher ground as boats were swept inland and cars and people sucked out to sea.
US President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in American Samoa and pledged a “swift and aggressive” government response.
The European Union released an initial amount of 150,000 euros (£137,000; $220,000) in aid for the victims, and Australia and New Zealand also pledged assistance.
The Red Cross has set up camps for those who have lost their homes, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
The Samoa islands comprise two separate entities - the nation of Samoa and American Samoa, a US territory. The total population is about 250,000.
‘River of mud’
The 8.3-magnitude quake struck at 1748 GMT on Tuesday, generating 15ft (4.5m) waves in some areas of the islands.
Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni said there were fears the major tourism areas on the west side of Upolu island - the eastern of the two main Samoan islands - had been badly hit.
Returning New Zealand holidaymakers told of “truckloads” of bodies in the worst hit area on the southern side of Upuolo.
“We’ve seen pick-up trucks carrying the dead… back to town,” Fotu Becerra told radio Newstalk ZB, the AFP news agency reported.
Joey Cummings, a radio broadcaster in Pago Pago told the BBC that he watched from a balcony as a five-metre (15ft) wave struck, and “the air was filled with screams”.
He said a “river of mud” carried trees, cars, buses and boats past his building, which is practically at sea level.
The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuila’epe Sailele Malielegaoi, said he was shocked at the devastation.
“So much has gone. So many people are gone,” he told Australia’s AAP news agency.
American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono said the effects of the tsunami would touch everyone.
“I don’t think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster,” he said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) said the quake struck at a depth of 33km (20 miles), some 190km (120 miles) from Apia.
Small tsunamis reached areas as far away as New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan.
An Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 - which killed about 230,000 people in 11 countries - is the worst on record.
Separately on Wednesday a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck a different fault line off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 75 people.
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