Megaquake off Russian coast sparks tsunami warnings across Pacific

A powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake off Russia's far east has prompted tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific including Japan, Hawaii, Russia and Ecuador, and warnings along the California coast, US authorities said late Tuesday.

According to the Kamchatka branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, a tsunami wave of up to 32 centimeters is possible in the Aleutsky municipal district, up to 20 centimeters in Ust-Kamchatsky, and up to 6 centimeters in the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky urban district. A kindergarten building in Russia's Kamchatka region was damaged due to the earthquake. It was the region's strongest quake since 1952, with aftershocks of up to 7.5 magnitude possible, the regional seismic monitoring service said.