Russia’s TASS news agency said several people suffered minor injuries, including those at a regional airport.
The emergencies ministry said the tsunami flooded a port town home to about 2,000 people.
“The tsunami flooded parts of the port town of Severo-Kurilsk … The population has been evacuated,” the ministry said in a statement.
A video posted on Russian social media appeared to show buildings in the town submerged in seawater.
The US Tsunami Warning System similarly issued a warning of “hazardous tsunami waves” within the coming hours along some coasts of Hawaii.
The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management called for the evacuation of some coastal areas in Hawaii, saying “destructive” waves were expected.
The US further sounded the alarm with a series of alerts of varying levels along North America’s West Coast, from Alaska down to the entire coast of California.
Tsunami alerts were pushed to mobile phones in California, according to local AFP reporters.
“Tsunami waves reaching more than 3m above the tide level are possible along some coasts of northwestern Hawaiian islands … and Russia,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, describing the potential conditions as “hazardous”.
At least six aftershocks have further rattled the region, including one of 6.9-magnitude and another listed at 6.3.
Over in Southeast Asia, the Philippines’ seismology agency advised people to stay away from beaches in coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean as these regions are expected to experience tsunami waves of less than 1m in height.
“It may not be the largest of waves, but these can continue for hours and expose people swimming in the waters to danger,” Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told The Associated Press.
Indonesia’s geophysics agency also issued a warning that tsunami waves of less than 0.5m could reach some coastal cities and towns in the Papua region, North Maluku province and Gorontalo province.
