“The 5.6 magnitude earthquake was registered at 7:55 a.m. [20:55 on Tuesday GMT] near the Kuril Islands. The epicentre of tremors was located … 140 kilometres [87 miles] south of the Island of Iturup, at the depth of 60 kilometres,” a head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismological station said.
The head of the station added that residents of the Malokurilskoye village on the island of Shikotan had felt the 3.0 magnitude tremors.
The Kuril Islands are located in a seismically active zone known as the Ring of Fire, which is regularly affected by powerful earthquakes. On November 5, 1952, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a huge tsunami that devastated the town of Severo-Kurilsk, leaving more than 2,300 people killed.
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