A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres, prompting evacuations and damaging buildings, officials said.

Tsunami alerts were issued across parts of the Pacific including Japan, Hawaii, Russia and Ecuador, and warnings along the California coast,

"Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that according to preliminary information there were no injuries, but a kindergarten was damaged.

A tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations said, urging people to move away from the shoreline of the peninsula.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3km, and was centred about 125km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay.

It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier.

The Japan Weather Agency upgraded its warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 metres to reach large coastal areas.

Broadcaster NHK said evacuation orders had been issued by the government for some areas.

The US Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of "hazardous tsunami waves" within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan and Hawaii.

The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management called for the evacuation of some coastal areas.

"Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected," the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management said on X.

The United States further sounded the alarm with a series of alerts of varying levels along North America's West Coast, from Alaska down to the entire coast of California.

A tsunami watch was also in effect for the US island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.

An evacuation order for the small town of Severo-Kurilsk, south of the peninsula, was declared due to the tsunami threat, Sakhalin Governor Valery Limarenko said on Telegram.

At least six aftershocks have further rattled the region, including one of 6.9 magnitude and another listed at 6.3.

The epicentre of the earthquake is roughly the same as a massive 9.0 temblor in 1952 which resulted in a destructive, Pacific-wide tsunami, according to the USGS. (Agencies)
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Last updated: 2025-07-30 HKT 13:40