Local authorities have reported flooding in the northern part of Russia's Kuril Islands in Sakhalin region as a result of a strong 8.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the area near the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, DPA reported, BTA reported.
Alexander Ovsyannikov, mayor of the Severo-Kurilsk district on Paramushir Island, reported four waves and stressed that a tsunami warning was still in effect.
According to civil defense, the port of the city of Severo-Kurilsk and the property of a fishing company there are partially flooded, and the population, including 60 tourists, has been evacuated.
The local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences published a video from Paramushir Island, filmed with a drone, in which The effects of the rising waters are visible.
Russia, Japan, parts of the United States and several countries in Asia and Latin America have issued tsunami warnings after a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck at around 11:30 a.m. local time (Kamchatka time) (03:30 a.m. Bulgarian time) about 136 kilometers southeast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea at a depth of about 20 kilometers.
According to the United States Geological Survey, this is likely the most powerful earthquake in the world since Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, and has been surpassed in strength by only five earthquakes since similar measurements have been made.
The Kuril Islands are a group of volcanic islands located northeast of Japan and southwest of the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific Ocean.