According to Agence France Presse, tsunami warnings have also been issued in Peru and for the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador, where some "preventative" evacuations are taking place.

South America's west coast is about 13,000km (8,000 miles) away from where the quake struck on the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka.

Closer to the epicentre, tsunami waves are also expected to hit parts of eastern China, authorities there said.

Three tsunami waves have hit the Russian port town of Severo-Kurilsk, the last of which damaged port infrastructure and pulled several moored ships out into the straits.

The third wave was "powerful", the state's TASS news agency said.

We earlier reported that the waves had flooded part of the town. Residents have gathered on a hill and will remain there until the tsunami threat is over, TASS said.

Peter Bowes
North America correspondent

It will be a long night along the entire West Coast of the US as we brace for the impact of what could be a powerful tsunami, although it is unlikely to be catastrophic.

Hawaii and areas south and southeast Alaska are under the highest level of warning, which means people should take urgent action to protect life and property, by moving to higher ground.

California, Oregon and Washington are subject to a lower grade advisory which warns of strong currents and dangerous waves.

Tsunamis generally hit over a period of hours, so the full extent of any damage may not be known until the early hours of Wednesday, local time. At this stage it is not certain that western states will be affected, but we should get a good idea over the next three hours, when the first strong waves could hit Hawaii.

Shaimaa Khalil
Tokyo correspondent

Japan’s evacuation warnings now span hundreds of kilometres along a wide swathe of its Pacific coast - from Hokkaido in the north to Wakayama prefecture in the south.

The meteorological agency had warned that tsunami waves could reach up to 3 metres high.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company which operates the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, has said that all workers have been evacuated – adding that there were no abnormalities reported so far.

The power plant suffered a nuclear meltdown in 2011 following an huge earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba has said that a task force is in place to assess the situation reiterating warnings for those in the affected areas.

Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles

Seismologist Dr Lucy Jones says the tsunami could damage harbours and waterfront property in Hawaii - and possibly in California - but it is not expected to cause a catastrophic loss of life anywhere in the Americas.

Tsunami waves in Hawaii are predicted to be 3-10 feet, while in Santa Barbara, the wave height is predicted to be 1-2 feet. For comparison, in Japan in 2011 some wave heights were 42 feet, Jones said.

“It’s not a wave,” she said. “That’s how much the sea level rises temporarily.”

Crescent City in northern California is expected to get 6-foot waves in its harbour, she added.

The predicted wave height for Santa Barbara is higher than that for Washington or British Columbia in Canada - even though California is further away - because of the pattern forming in the ocean, she said.

Dr Jones said she’d been speaking with a camp counselor on Catalina Island - off the coast of Los Angeles - where waves are expected to hit around 01:00 local time (09:00 BST).

“They’re not evacuating,” she said, adding that even though the threat was minimal, they might decide to move campers away from the closest beachfront cabins.

Jake Lapham
US reporter

I've just been speaking to DL Scales, who is holidaying in Wailea, Maui, as he was stuck in traffic along with dozens of other holidaymakers trying to reach higher ground.

Hawaii is currently under a tsunami warning, with officials warnings of "destructive" waves.

"It's relatively calm, everyone is trying to get out, I don't know where people are going," he tells me.

"They did sound sirens a few minutes ago, which initiated people to start driving away."

He says the only people panicking are some tourists.

"If you're watching us right now, no doubt you understand that we are under a full tsunami alert right now," an emergency official says during a press conference in Honolulu.

"We are a couple of hours away from any impact to Hawaii," he says. "Pay attention, listen," he says.

Josh Green, the governor of Hawaii, is speaking now. He says: "I ask that you stay calm. if you are in a low-lying ara please get to higher ground," he says.

He says the roads are full, he asks that people stay calm, co-operate and get to higher ground.

"If you are in a safe place please stay there, and if you're not, please get to higher ground."

Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles

Sirens and phone alerts are blaring across Maui, and Maui-based bagpipe player Roger Pleasanton told the BBC he was relieved to get so many alerts.

“At least we know it’s working. The emergency services are working,” he said while lining up to buy diesel for his vehicle. “As we know it didn’t work during the fires.”

Pleasanton was the resident bagpipe player at Fleetwood’s – a Maui institution owned by Mick Fleetwood - which was destroyed in the 2023 Maui wildfires. Before the fires, he played his pipes at sunset most days on the deck of the bar.

We interviewed Pleasanton at the time as his home on Maui. While many dream of owning a bit of waterfront property in Hawaii, Pleasanton says today he’s especially relieved that he lives in the lush hills – on high ground.

“The traffic’s like New York City right now,” he said. “I was going to go to the grocery store, but I think I may have to skip the groceries and get out of here.”

Residents in many parts of Japan are under evacuation orders to seek high ground and stay away from the coasts.

This is a clip of people sheltering on top of a building in Mukawa, in Japan's Hokkaido prefecture.

Speaking to the BBC's Newsday programme a short while ago, Helen Janiszewski, Assistant Professor, Geophysics and Tectonics Division at the University of Hawaii said that today's earthquake ranks among the ten most severe in recorded history. According to the US Geological Survey, external, at magnitude 8.8 it is tied at the sixth most severe quake in history, with the 2010 earthquake in Biobío, Chile, and the 1906 earthquake in Esmeraldas, Ecuador.

The USGS says of the Chile earthquake, "Occurring offshore near the city of Quirihue, this intense earthquake killed 523 people and destroyed more than 370,000 homes."

Of the Ecuador earthquake, it says, "Referred to as the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake, this quake produced a strong tsunami that killed 1,500 and reached as far north as San Francisco."

Interestingly, the fifth most severe earthquake was, like today's, in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It was in 1952 and was "the world's first recorded magnitude 9 earthquake."

It "triggered a massive tsunami that struck Hawaii, causing over $1 million in damages."

The first photos of a damaged kindergarten in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are coming through.

As we reported earlier, the regional minister for emergency situations Sergei Lebedev said that the earthquake was one of the "strongest in decades".

Image source, Reuters

Tsunami waves have flooded part of the Russian port town of Severo-Kurilsk, according to Russia's emergencies ministry.

The town has a population of around 2,000 people.

Videos on social media appear to show water surging inland near the town.

Image source, Reuters

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear plant have been evacuated and moved to higher ground, according to a statement from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was the site of a major nuclear disaster following the devastating 9.0 magnitude Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

TEPCO added that there have been no injuries or abnormalities recorded at the plants, but that they will continue to monitor tsunami warnings.

Earlier this week, TEPCO announced that the full-scale removal of fuel debris could be delayed by 12 to 15 years - to allow enough time for radiation levels to decrease.

US President Donald Trump has just posted about the tsunami warning in Hawaii and advisories in Alaska and the US' pacific coast.

"Please visit tsunami.gov/, external for the latest information. STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!" he posted on Truth Social and X.

Tsunami warnings alert people to the possibility of dangerous powerful currents, while urging them to move to higher ground or inland. The lower-level advisories warn of strong currents and urge people to stay out of water and away from the beaches.

Sirens sounded in Honolulu after officials in Hawaii ordered an "immediate evacuation" of large parts of the island Oahu, of which Honolulu is the capital.

"Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves are expected," Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management also said in alerts on social media. Watch below:

No casualties or damage have been reported so far, says Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Tsunami waves of between 30cm and 40cm have hit parts of northern Japan so far, with authorities warning of larger, subsequent waves.

Wednesday's earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula was the strongest since 1952, with authorities warning of "strong aftershocks".

"Significant, noticeable aftershocks with magnitudes up to 7.5 are expected to continue for at least another month," the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences has warned.

The peninsula has already been rocked by a series of earthquakes in the last 10 days.

On 20 July, it recorded a series of five earthquakes, including one with a magnitude of 7.4 near Kamchatka's capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Image source, Getty Images

Several people were injured in Russia's far east after this morning's earthquake which struck the remote Kamchatka peninsula, the state's TASS news agency reports.

Some sustained injuries while evacuating, including a woman who jumped out of a window. The region's health minister Oleg Melnikov has said all of them are "in satisfactory condition".

"No serious injuries have been reported at this time," he said.

The earthquake that struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has been upgraded to an 8.8 magnitude tremor, according to the United States Geological Survey.

It was previously recorded as an 8.7 magnitude earthquake.