The tsunami warnings and evacuations for the low-lying areas of countries at risk following the earlier 8.8-magnitude earthquake, have now been eased.

It struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, some 80 miles east of the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and was the largest in that particular area since 1952.

Authorities reported that the port town of Severo-Kurilsk had been flooded and waves reaching four metres high had been recorded in the Elizovsky district of Kamchatka, leading to a state of emergency being declared.

News of this put the likes of Japan and Hawaii on full alert, with nearly 2 million people quickly evacuated from their homes near Japanese coastal areas of the northern island of Hokkaido and the main Honshu island.

Warnings and advisories were also issued for Taiwan, the Philippines, China, Mexico, Micronesia, Tonga, Indonesia, Guam, Peru, Ecuador, Canada’s British Columbia region, Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, and the US west coast states of California, Oregon and Washington.

There was gridlock on several of the Hawaiian islands and citizens quickly headed for higher ground and the order was to stay away from the beaches and harbours.

Ecuador also ordered preventive evacuations of beaches, docks and low-lying areas in the Galapagos Islands off its coast, with the Secretariat for Risk Management releasing a statement saying: “A tsunami warning has been established for the Insular Region [Galapagos], which indicates the immediate suspension of maritime activities.”

Although the earthquake had a depth of 18km – according to the US Geological Survey – and was therefore one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, it seems that it has not escalated to the extent it could have and at this stage there are no reports of any injuries or fatalities.

Across most regions the warnings were downgraded to advisories, which would have come as a great relief to tens of millions who could have been fearing the worst, remembering the devastating effects of similar sized quakes in 2004 and 2011.