Magnitude 7.6 quake occured 300 miles from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Russian Seismologists

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred some 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Russian Far Eastern city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the Kamchatka office of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.

"Earthquake 14:49 (02:49 a.m. GMT), max magnitude 7.6, total of 463 kilometers from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The data will be specified," it said.

No casualties or destruction have been reported by regional emergencies services.

There is a risk of tsunami in the North Kuril area after the earthquake, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismological station's head, Yelena Semenova, told Sputnik.

The authorities said residents were being evacuated on the Kuril island of Paramushir due to the tsunami threat.