Earthquake of magnitude 5.2 strikes near Kuril Islands, no tsunami threat

An earthquake of magnitude 5.2 occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the northern Kuril Islands. This was announced on August 30 by Elena Semenova, head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic station.

"An earthquake of magnitude 5.2 occurred in the Pacific Ocean ... on August 30. The epicentre was located 94 kilometres east of the city of Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island," she told RIA Novosti.

According to her, the source of the seismic event, recorded at 09:58 (01:58 Moscow time), lay at a depth of 25 km, and residents of Severo-Kurilsk could feel its tremors. Semenova clarified that the tsunami threat had not been announced.

On August 27, the Seismological Monitoring Centre of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Uzbekistan reported a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that occurred at 18:57 (16:27 Moscow time) in Afghanistan. The seismic event was located at a depth of 160 km. There was no information about damage or casualties.