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Bodies floated out to sea and thousands of residents camped out on Tuesday on a hillside above a devastated town in the western Solomon Islands after a tsunami that struck without warning washed away coastal villages, killing at least 13 people.

The death toll was expected to rise.

More than 900 homes were destroyed and some 5,000 people affected by the tsunami that struck a remote region of the Solomon Islands, a government official said on Monday.

The death toll was expected to climb once assessment teams made their way to the stricken region, said National Disaster Management Office spokesman Julian Makaa.

The first comprehensive damage assessment was "around 916 houses, and a very rough estimate of the people affected is around 5,000 people," Makaa told Australian Broadcasting Corp Radio.

Thousands of residents of Gizo in the Solomons' far west spent last night huddled on a hill behind the town after a magnitude 8 earthquake sent tsunami waves up to 5 metres high crashing through the town.