Brighton Woman Missing Following Tonga Volcano Eruption

A woman from Brighton, living in Tonga, has reportedly been swept away by waves as the eruption of an underwater volcano triggered a tsunami and blanketed the Pacific island with ash.

Angela Glover, an animal charity worker, has not been seen since her coastal home was hit by the waves - her husband James managed to hold on to a tree, but Angela and their dogs disappeared.

Her brother Nick Eleini told the Guardian he has grave fears for her safety, adding:

"What are we, 48 hours later? I don't think this is going to have a happy ending."

He said Angela and her husband got "washed away" and that one of the dogs has since been found.

"James was able to cling on to a tree for quite a long time, but Angela was unable to do so and was washed away with the dogs, I think four or five dogs," he told the newspaper.

He said the couple were housesitting a house on the west coast of the island of Tongatapu, Tonga's main island.

"James went back to their proper house on the south coast of the island, but Angela didn't turn up. James contacted the police and the British embassy there, where he was able to notify us of what happened," he explained.

Mr Eleini said the search for his sister is ongoing but the wait is "excruciating", adding:

"I can't even believe the words are coming out of my mouth, to be honest."

According to the BBC, Mr Eleini, who lives in Sydney, Australia, is reportedly on his way to Hove to be with their mother, following the disaster.

Meanwhile, two people are known to have drowned off a beach in Peru due to unusually high waves following the eruption.

Australia's foreign ministry and New Zealand's military said they had each sent a surveillance flight on Monday morning to Tonga to assess the extent of the damage.

The eruption caused internet and phone lines to go down on Saturday evening, leaving the 105,000 residents on the islands virtually uncontactable to people in other nations.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged to provide support for Tonga as early as possible but said the huge ash cloud covering the island had hampered relief efforts.

"There's been a lot of challenges there with the ash cloud and the disruption to communications and so we are working together to get as much support to Tonga as we possibly can," he told radio station 2GB.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said communications are limited and so contact has not been made with coastal areas beyond the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

"Nuku'alofa is "covered in thick plumes of volcanic dust but otherwise conditions are calm and stable," she said. "We have not yet received news from other coastal areas."

Ms Ardern later said the main undersea communications cable was affected, most likely because of the loss of power.

However, she also said power was being restored in some areas on the islands and local mobile phones were slowly starting to connect to networks.

The International Federation of Red Cross said it was mobilising its regional network to respond to what it called the worst volcanic eruptions the Pacific has experienced in decades.

"From what little updates we have, the scale of the devastation could be immense, especially for outer lying islands," said Katie Greenwood, IFRC's pacific head of delegation.

Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption on Saturday as the explosion sent plumes of smoke into the air, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves and evacuation orders on several Pacific islands.

Concerns have grown among the Tongan community in New Zealand, who were desperate to make contact with their families back home.

Maikeli Atiola, the secretary of the Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Auckland, said:

"We pray God will help our country at this sad moment. We hope everybody is safe."

Sanya Ruggiero, a communications worker in the Fijian capital Suva, described how the eruption left his "entire house shaking", despite being around 750km away from Tonga.

He said:

"My doors, windows were all rattling like hell. And mine was not even as bad as others.

"Hundreds of people ran out of their homes."

Mr Ruggiero added:

"This is the worst disaster Tonga has had in living memory and the recovery from this is going to take years."