Tokyo, 30 July 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Japan, Russia and parts of the United States issued tsunami warnings after a powerful undersea earthquake struck off Russia's far eastern coast.

An 8.8-magnitude quake struck at 2324 GMT on Tuesday about 136 kilometres south-east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea at a depth of around 20 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS had initially reported the magnitude as 8.0.

According to the USGS, the earthquake was the strongest worldwide since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011 and has only been surpassed by five earthquakes since measurements began.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) measured a magnitude of 7.8, while Russian state agency TASS reported it as 8.7.

Authorities in Japan raised tsunami alerts on Wednesday and warned that waves of up to 3 metres could hit Pacific coastal areas. Residents were urged to evacuate or move to higher ground.

Japanese television station NHK reported that waves measuring 40 centimetres were initially recorded along the northern coasts of the prefectures of Hokkaido and Aomori. There have been no reports of irregularities at nuclear power plants.

In Russia's Kamchatka region, TASS reported that people fled into the streets in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, with power and phone networks briefly knocked out. In Sakhalin, residents along the coast were evacuated as a precaution, according to the report.

The US National Tsunami Warning Center also issued alerts for Hawaii, where waves of up to 3 metres were predicted. Coastal residents were advised to leave endangered areas immediately or seek shelter in buildings at least 10 storeys high.

A tsunami warning was also issued for Alaska's west coast. More distant Pacific states such as the Philippines and Indonesia also braced themselves for incoming tsunami waves.

Photo: EPA archive/screenshot