Powerful 5.7-magnitude earthquake strikes off the northern Kuril Islands

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 struck the Pacific Ocean near the Northern Kuril Islands, according to the Kamchatka branch of the Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The epicentre was located 118 km east of the town of Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island, with the focus at a depth of 48 km beneath the seabed.

According to geophysicists, the quake may have been felt in Severo-Kurilsk with an intensity of up to five on the seismic scale.

By Jeyhun Aghazada