Magnitude 8.5 quake recorded off Russia's Kamchatka

VLADIVOSTOK. July 30 (Interfax) - A magnitude 8.5 earthquake has been recorded off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Unified Geophysical Service, said.

"A very powerful earthquake has occurred. Its magnitude was at 8.5," Chebrov said on a video commentary published on the branch's Telegram channel.

As reported, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off Kamchatka's coast at 11:24 a.m. local time (2:24 a.m. Moscow time) on Wednesday. It was centered 161 kilometers east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at a depth of 32 kilometers. Tremors of up to magnitude 8 were felt in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and up to magnitude 6 in Severo-Kurilsk, on Paramushir Island of the northern Kuil Islands. A tsunami alert has been issued for the Avacha Bay coast and for the northern Kuril Islands.