NEW ZEALAND and Australia temporarily issued tsunami warnings yesterday after an earthquake struck the south of New Zealand, causing minor damage but no injuries.

Geologists studying a fault line off New Zealand’s South Island said today it could cause more severe earthquakes than previously thought – in an area that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

Four climbers were killed and two others injured in an avalanche on New Zealand’s second highest peak, Mount Tasman.

A strong earthquake rocked buildings and rattled windows across central New Zealand on Monday, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.