Zürcher Nachrichten - Russia relieved as tsunami spares far east from major damage

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula earlier, prompting evacuations and tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific coast.

Russian state television on Wednesday aired footage of a tsunami wave sweeping through Severo-Kurilsk, a coastal town on an island close to Japan, carrying buildings and debris into the sea.

Giant waves crashed through the port area and submerged a fishing plant in the town of about 2,000 people, some 350 kilometres (217 miles) southwest of the earthquake's underwater epicentre, according to authorities.

The epicentre was 47 kilometres (30 miles) beneath the sea level and sent shock waves at a range of 300 kilometres (200 miles), Russia's geophysical survey told state news agency RIA Novosti.

The waves, which were up to four metres high in some areas, reached as far as the town's World War II monument about 400 metres (1,312 feet) from the shoreline, according to mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.

Most of the town lies on higher ground safe from flooding, he added.

"Everyone was evacuated. There was enough time, a whole hour. So everyone was evacuated, all the people are in the tsunami safety zone," he said at a crisis meeting with officials earlier.

A tsunami warning for Kamchatka was lifted later on Wednesday.

- 'Everyone acted quickly' -

"Thank God, there were no casualties," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, saying the region's warning system had helped.

CCTV footage released by the Kamchatka region's health minister, Oleg Melnikov, showed surgeons holding down a patient on an operating table when the earthquake rocked the area.

Regional governor Vladimir Solodov said on Telegram he would nominate the doctors for state awards, adding: "Such courage deserves the highest praise."

An expedition group from the Russian Geographical Society was on the Kuril island of Shumshu when the tsunami swept away their tent camp.

"When the wave hit, all we could do was run to higher ground. It's very difficult to do that in boots on slippery grass and in fog," group member Vera Kostamo told Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"All the tents and structures were swept away by the wave, and our belongings were scattered across the beach for hundreds of metres.

"We have no casualties, everyone acted quickly, but we lost all our belongings."

Authorities in the Sakhalin region, which includes the northern Kuril Islands, declared a state of emergency.

The regional seismic monitoring service said the earthquake was the region's strongest since 1952.

"Strong aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 7.5 should be expected," it added.

E.Leuenberger--NZN