Earthquake of magnitude 7 strikes Tonga islands, GFZ says

(Reuters) -A magnitude 7 earthquake struck Tonga on Sunday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 16 km (10 miles), GFZ said.

GFZ had earlier pegged the earthquake at 6.6.

Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 300 km of the epicenter along the coasts of Tonga, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System said. Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom of more than 170 South Pacific islands.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Rod Nickel)