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The tsunami alert has been called off on the Kuril Islands after a powerful undersea earthquake which prompted tsunami warnings Wednesday for Russia and Japan resulted in a serious of wavelets approaching the northern Japanese coast.

Waves up to three metres (10 feet) high were expected after the earthquake struck 390 kilometres (242 miles) north east of the island of Iturup in the Sea of Okhotsk, experts from the Far Eastern branch of Russian emergency Ministry said. Russian authorities estimated the strength of the earthquake at 7.9 on the Richter scale.

“After receiving the tsunami warning, more than 900 islanders were taken to higher grounds. Currently they are returning to their homes,” Sakhalin emergency specialists said, Deita.Ru news agency cited them as saying. No casualties or damage were reported.

Japanese media reports said the seismic wave from the earthquake on Japan’s north-eastern coast was tiny. According to them, a wave measuring about 40 centimeters had come ashore at Nemuro, on the east coast of Hokkaido Island.

The four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain – Habomai, Shikotan, Etorofu and Kunashiri – have been disputed between Moscow and Tokyo since the end of World War II. The Kurils are known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Deita.ru news agency, the Vladivostok News