A massive earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, followed by a huge aftershock, rocked Russia's remote north-eastern Kamchatka peninsula Friday but caused only light injuries, officials said.
The quake struck shortly after midday local time Friday (2323 GMT Thursday) and was followed five hours later by a tremor measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, the Kamchatka seismological service said.
Thousands of people in the sparsely populated Koryakiya district of Kamchatka were affected but only four required medical attention with about 50 more believed to have suffered scratches and other minor injuries, the emergency situations ministry said.
An initial warning of a follow-on tsunami wave in the Bering Sea off Russia's far-eastern coast was lifted, Interfax news agency quoted the emergency situations ministry as saying.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in Koryakiya and dispatched emergency supplies and repair workers to help hundreds of people feared to be facing a night outside in sub-zero temperatures.
President Vladimir Putin announced that the emergency services "have already deployed and in some areas are already helping." "So far there are no reports of fatalities," he was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency.
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