A powerful earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka has caused a tsunami, with evacuations declared in Japan and Hawaii

The most powerful earthquake in 70 years shook Kamchatka: tsunami reached the shores, alert declared up to California

According to preliminary data, there are no casualties. The Minister of Health of the Kamchatka Territory, Oleg Melnikov, reported that several people were injured as a result of the natural disaster.

"There are people who were injured while running out. There is a patient who jumped out of a window. Unfortunately, a woman in the new airport building was injured. All patients are in satisfactory condition. No serious injuries have been recorded at the moment," TASS news agency quotes Melnikov.

According to the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 occurred approximately 150 km from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, with the epicenter at a depth of 17 km.

According to seismologists, this is the strongest earthquake in the region since the 1952 catastrophe, when at least 2,000 people died in the Kuriles and Kamchatka as a result of an earthquake and tsunami.