Scary footage surfaces after 8.7-magnitude earthquake jolts Russia’s Kamchatka | Watch videos

“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, AP reported.

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

A tsunami with a wave height of 3–4 meters was recorded in parts of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in its Far East, after a powerful earthquake struck off the region, Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

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Tsunami waves between 3 and 4 meters (10–13 feet) were reported in parts of Kamchatka, according to Sergei Lebedev, the regional minister for emergency situations, who urged residents to stay away from the peninsula’s coastline.

The U.S. Geological Survey stated that the quake was relatively shallow, occurring at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles). It was located about 125 km (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a coastal city of 165,000 situated along Avacha Bay. The agency later upgraded the quake’s magnitude from an initial 8.0 to 8.7.

The Japan Weather Agency upgraded its warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 metres (10 feet) to reach large coastal areas starting around 0100 GMT. Broadcast NHK said evacuation orders had been issued by the government for some areas.

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The U.S. Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan and Hawaii. A tsunami watch was also in effect for the U.S. island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.

Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors.

We urge residents to stay away from the peninsula’s coastline.

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. Kamchatka and Russia’s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, AP reported.