New Delhi, July 30 -- Tsunami warnings have been across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the US West Coast after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, according to media reports.

The quake, a 'shallow' one, hit at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles). It was centred 126 kilometres (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka coast according to the US Geological Survey.

image-fallback The earthquake is the strongest in the region since 1952, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Guardian reported. It is also the joint-sixth strongest ever recorded.

The Guardian also quoted Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations, as saying that a tsunami with a he...