SOME frightened Samoans who fled to the hills as a tsunami tore through their seaside villages vowed never to return to the coastline, while aid workers delivered water and medicine amid the growing stench of decay.

SAMOANS searched flattened homes and debris-filled swamps, while dazed survivors told of being trapped underwater or flung inland by a tsunami that ravaged towns and killed at least 150 people in the South Pacific.

Stunned Samoans combed through the sodden wreckage of their lives today and told of the terror of the tsunami that ravaged towns and killed at least 149 people in the South Pacific.

LIMERICK hotel manager Triona O’Neill ran for her life carrying her son in her arms to escape a massive tsunami that flattened Samoan villages, killing at least 119 and leaving dozens missing.

Scores of people were dead and missing today after a powerful earthquake in the South Pacific hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa.