A tsunami warning has been issued for the coastal areas of the Far East of Russia following a strong earthquake near the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and dangerous waves are also possible in Japan, Alaska and Hawaii.
The earthquake, according to the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was recorded at around 11:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, about 136 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Later, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed the tremor as having a magnitude of 8.7 (some reports also put it at 8.8).