A new powerful earthquake has shaken the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East of Russia.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center registered a tremor with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale shortly before 7:00 this morning local time (around 22:00 Bulgarian time).
The epicenter was registered 125 kilometers northeast of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
"Today, all of Kamchatka woke up at the same time, at around 7:00 in the morning. It was a fairly strong earthquake. Experts are still assessing the exact magnitude, but it will be between 7.4 and 7.8, somewhere in that range. This is one of a series of aftershocks that have been going on since July 30; we have already had about 2,000. And in that sense it was really quite strong," Kamchatka Krai Governor Vladimir Solodov told Rossiya-24 TV, quoted by BTA.
The governor assured that all emergency services are on high alert and urged the population to remain calm and follow the instructions of the authorities.
According to the regional Minister of Emergency Situations Sergey Lebedev, a wave approximately 30 cm high has entered the mouth of the Nalichevo River.
The aftershocks continue, with most of them measuring over 4.5 on the Richter scale.
In recent months, the Kamchatka Peninsula region has experienced extremely strong seismic activity.