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Footage shows ash on ruined Tonga buildings

Eyewitness video and pictures obtained by Reuters showed vehicles driving on streets blanketed with ash, as residents embarked on clean up operations after Saturday's (January 15) eruption and tsunami struck the South Pacific island nation, cutting it off from the rest of the world.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, which killed at least three people and sent tsunami waves across the Pacific, knocked out communications for about 105,000 people.

Telephone links began to be reconnected late on Wednesday (January 19), though restoring full internet connectivity is likely to take a month or more according to the owner of the archipelago's sole subsea communications cable.