A fishing boat was washed on a reef to the east of the Masefield Naval Base, in Nuku'alofa late this afternoon, the victim of a tropical depression that has lashed Tongatapu with strong winds and heavy rain during the past 48 hours.

The fishing boat, Enemato 1267, is believed to be owned by Global Fishing and had been moored off the reef between Pangaimotu Island and Touliki.

The strong winds gusting up to 45km an hour also caused the cancellation of all domestic air services on Wednesday and again today Thursday. Tonga's international air services were unaffected.

The Tonga Meteorological Centre at Fua'amotu reported that the tropical depression originated at 185 km south of Vava'u on Tuesday January 8, then moved slowly southward to Tongatapu at a speed of less than 5 knots.

At 10am today the depression was located at about 45km to the south west of Fua'amotu. It is expected to move southeast in the next six to 12 hours and there will be associated cloud, rain and strong winds affecting the group.