Huge quake rocks Russia's Far East, triggering tsunami warnings around Pacific

(Reuters) -Parts of French Polynesia were told to brace for waves as high as 4 metres (13 ft) on Wednesday, after a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern coast triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii, Japan and Chile.

The shallow tremor off the Kamchatka Peninsula damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan's eastern seaboard - devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 - was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii.

By Wednesday evening, Japan and Hawaii had downgraded their tsunami warnings, but authorities in French Polynesia warned residents of several of the remote Marquesas Islands to move to higher ground, and follow official instructions.

The waves were expected to hit some islands in the early morning hours.

"Our armed forces in French Polynesia are on alert as a precautionary measure, to be ready to assist our fellow citizens and state services in potential search and rescue operations or medical evacuations," French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on the social media platform X.

While the Marquesas are high-rising volcanic islands, much of French Polynesia consists of low-lying atolls.

Russian scientists said the quake in Kamchatka was the most powerful to hit the region since 1952.

"Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.

"It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes," said Yaroslav, 25, in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

In Severo-Kurilsk in the northern Kuril Islands, south of Kamchatka, tsunami waves exceeded 3 metres, with the largest up to 5 metres, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

Alexander Ovsyannikov, the town's mayor, urged residents to assess damage to their homes and not to use gas stove heating until inspections had been carried out.

Tsunami waves partially flooded the port and a fish processing plant in the town, sweeping vessels from their moorings, regional officials and Russia's emergency ministry said.

Verified drone footage showed the town's entire shoreline was submerged, with taller buildings and some storage facilities surrounded by water as it swept back out to sea. 

Hawaii recorded waves of up to 1.7 metres (5.5 feet) while in Japan the largest recorded came to 1.3 metres, officials said.

Tsunami warnings and orders to head for higher ground in both places were later downgraded in most areas to advisories, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying Hawaii no longer expected to see a major tsunami.

Flights out of Honolulu airport resumed in the evening, the transportation department said. 

Waves of nearly half a metre were observed as far as California, with smaller ones reaching Canada's province of British Columbia.

WARNINGS ACROSS THE PACIFIC

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and centred 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000.

Tsunami alarms had sounded in coastal towns across Japan's Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of people. 

Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said. 

Broadcaster Asahi TV reported a 58-year-old woman died when her car fell off a cliff while she was evacuating in central Japan's Mie prefecture.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said no injuries or damage had been reported, and there were no irregularities at any nuclear plants.

But hundreds of thousands of commuters in Tokyo and surrounding areas faced being stranded as they headed home, with operations on railway lines along the Pacific coast remaining halted.

'RING OF FIRE'

Russia's Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that a kindergarten was damaged, but most buildings withstood the quake.

Several people in Kamchatka sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister, told Russia’s TASS state news agency.

Video footage from the region's health ministry showed a team of medics in the city of 165,000 residents performing surgery as the tremors shook their operating theatre.

Kamchatka and Russia's Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

"However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high ... as one might expect from such a magnitude," said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service, on Telegram. 

"Aftershocks are currently ongoing ... Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future."

(Reporting by Anusha Shah Nilutpal Timsina, Mrinmay Dey, Shivani Tanna and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Satoshi Sugiyama, Chang-Ran Kim and John Geddie in Tokyo, Nur-Azna Sanusiin Singapore and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Lincoln Feast, Saad Sayeed and Hugh Lawson; Editing by Stephen Coates, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton)