Tokyo - Saba:
Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi announced today, Thursday, that one person was killed and seven others were injured as a result of the earthquake that struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia, and the ensuing tsunami.
Hayashi urged "citizens to follow the instructions of the National Meteorological Agency."
According to rescue team data, the person died in a traffic accident while trying to evacuate using a private vehicle from coastal areas in Kumamoto Prefecture, where the driver lost control of the vehicle on a mountain road. Meanwhile, the seven injured sustained varying degrees of injuries during evacuation operations. No information was reported about casualties or injuries directly caused by the tsunami, nor about severe damage.
Tsunami warnings remain in effect in Japan for most of the Pacific coast, where waves ranging in height from 20 cm to 1.3 meters reached the coasts of the eastern, northeastern, and northern regions of the country on Wednesday.
Evacuation instructions included around two million residents on the Pacific coast. The Japanese National Meteorological Agency urged displaced people not to return to their homes until the warning is fully lifted.
On the morning of July 30, a powerful earthquake occurred off the coast of Kamchatka, the strongest since 1952, with a magnitude of 8.8 according to official data.
A state of alert was declared in Kamchatka, while residents of northern Kuril Islands felt the strong tremor in the morning, followed by tsunami waves. A total of 2,400 residents in the region were evacuated to safe locations.
The earthquake also caused a tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, which prompted warnings from the authorities in Japan, the United States, and the Philippines.