"The strongest earthquake in the Kamchatka seismic focal zone since 1952 has just occurred," Kamchatka branch of the Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported

Russia said the temblor off the Kamchatka peninsula was ‘the strongest in decades’.

The Japan Weather Agency said it expected a tsunami of up to 1 metre (3.3 feet) to reach large coastal areas starting around 0100 GMT.