Chiba (Japan) (AFP) - One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s sparsely populated Far East on Wednesday, causing tsunamis up to four metres (12 feet) high across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.

The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and was the largest since 2011 when one of magnitude 9.1 off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.

Almost two million people in Japan were told to head to higher ground and tsunami warnings were issued across the region, before being rescinded or downgraded – though scientists warned of the danger of powerful aftershocks.

While the immediate area around the quake seemed to have been spared, people on the other side of the Pacific were gearing up for the impact of a tsunami expected to hit overnight.

Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands off the west coast of South America closed visitor sites and schools, ushering tourists to dry land as a precaution.

“The boats haven’t gone out to fish,” said a fisherwoman in Puerto Ayora on the islands who did not want to be named.

“We’ve been warned through the loudspeakers that it’s best not to approach the coastline.”

In Russia’s far east, a tsunami flooded the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, crashing through the port area and submerging the local fishing plant, officials said. Russian state television footage showed it sweep buildings and debris into the sea.

Authorities said the population of around 2,000 people had been evacuated.

The waves reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400 metres from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov.

Several people were injured in Russia by the quake, state media reported, but none seriously.

“The walls were shaking,” a Kamchatka resident told state media Zvezda.

“It’s good that we packed a suitcase, there was one with water and clothes near the door. We quickly grabbed it and ran out… It was very scary,” she said.

Later Wednesday, the authorities in the Kamchatka peninsula announced the tsunami warning had been lifted.

- Millions advised to flee -

Officials from countries with a Pacific coastline in North and South America – including the United States, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia – issued warnings to avoid threatened beaches and low-lying areas.

In Japan, nearly two million people were advised to evacuate, and many left by car or on foot to higher ground.

One woman was killed as she drove her car off a cliff as she tried to escape, local media reported.

A 1.3-metre high tsunami reached a port in the northern prefecture of Iwate, Japan’s weather agency said.

By Wednesday evening, the agency had downgraded its tsunami alerts – issued for much of the archipelago – to advisories.

In Hawaii, governor Josh Green said flights in and out of the island of Maui had been cancelled as a precaution.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later downgraded the alert for Hawaii to an advisory and local authorities cancelled a coastal evacuation order.

Earlier, tsunami sirens blared near Hawaii’s popular Waikiki surf beach where an AFP photographer saw gridlocked traffic as Hawaiians escaped to higher ground.

“STAY STRONG AND STAY SAFE!” US President Donald Trump said on social media.

- Pacific alerts -

Wednesday’s quake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic monitoring service said, warning of aftershocks of up to 7.5 magnitude.

The USGS said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors ever recorded.

The quake was followed by at least six aftershocks that further rattled the Russian far east, including one of 6.9 magnitude.

The US Tsunami Warning Centers said waves exceeding three metres above the tide level were possible along some coasts of Ecuador, northwestern Hawaiian islands and Russia.

Between one- and three-metre waves were possible along some coasts of Chile, Costa Rica, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Japan and other islands in the Pacific, it added.

Waves of up to one metre were possible elsewhere, including Australia, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, Tonga and Taiwan.

- Fukushima evacuated -

At Inage Beach in Chiba prefecture in Japan, officials have set up a security perimeter. One rescue worker told AFP the seaside area was off limits until further notice.

The Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan – destroyed by a huge quake and tsunami in 2011 – was evacuated, its operator said.

In Taitung in Taiwan, hotel resort worker Wilson Wang, 31, told AFP: “We’ve advised guests to stay safe and not go out, and to avoid going to the coast.”

Pacific nation Palau, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of the Philippines, ordered the evacuation of “all areas along the coastline”.

Waves of up to four metres are expected overnight in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, authorities said in a press statement.

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