vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #529 / Special reports / Reading article...

Over 2,000 people were evacuated as result of an earthquake that occurred off Kamchatka’s eastern coast on Sunday causing a two-meter high wave tsunami, emergency officials said.

The 4.4 magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter reaching a ten-kilometer depth, occurred 30 kilometers from the village of Krutoberegovo, Ust-Kamchatsky County, a press statement from the region’s Department for Emergency Situations reported.

Three hours later, a group of border guards spotted with optical equipment a big wave about 16 kilometers off the coast.

All people and machinery were urgently evacuated from the two villages of Krutobergovo and Ust-Kamchatsk located on the coast. The 15-meter-long wave approached and hit the shore several minutes later.

No victims or destruction of residential homes have been reported, with the wave destroying only a few sheds, the statement said.