Gigantic tidal wave comes down on Kuril islands and Japan

The threat of a tsunami approaching the eastern coast of Kamchatka is gone, RIA Novosti was told in the tsunami observation station of the Kamchatka interregional territorial department for hydrometeorology and environment monitoring.

The wave came down on the Kuril islands and Japan, but failed to reach Kamchatka.

The main civil defense and emergencies department for the Kamchatka region PR center reported that an 8.5 magnitude earthquake took place on Friday morning, several tens of kilometers from the west coast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. A tsunami was expected.

In experts' calculations, the gigantic wave was to have reached Kamchatka at about 12a.m.-1p.m.

The Ust-Kamchatsky and Aleutsky regions and the city of Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky were in the area the calamity could have affected.

The region's forces and means were put on red alert, people and property evacuated to safer places from ports, littoral settlements and fish-processing enterprises.

The peninsula's emergency services have returned to a normal mode of work by now.