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A tsunami warning for the coast of British Columbia has been cancelled after a powerful earthquake struck Alaska Tuesday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck at about 1:32 a.m. PST and had a preliminary reading of 8.2, which it later revised to 7.9. It struck 278 kilometres southeast of Kodiak at a depth of about 10 kilometres.

#Tsunami Warning previously issued for coastal areas of #BC has been CANCELLED. Continue to listen to instructions from local officials until the ALL CLEAR has been issued in your community. — Emergency Info BC (@EmergencyInfoBC) January 23, 2018

LIVE UPDATES: Latest on the earthquake and tsunami warning

Environment Canada has initially issued a tsunami warning, but hours later it was cancelled and evacuations have been lifted.

The warning has also been cancelled for Alaska and the U.S. west coast.

Tsunami warnings have ended for:

Central Coast and Northeast Vancouver Island coast including Kitimat Bella Coola and Port Hardy

The Outer West Coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Port Renfrew

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Wind warning in effect for

North Vancouver Island

The U.S. National Weather Service has initially issued this graphic illustrating tsunami travel time contours.

Tue Jan 23 10:07:47 UTC 2018 event picture pic.twitter.com/qeKKqFTysB — NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) January 23, 2018

Waking up to sirens

Residents along the province’s coast were woken by warning sirens shortly after the quake struck off the coast of Alaska.

There were a dozen aftershocks after the earthquake — the biggest being a 5.6 magnitude.

Local radio on the Alaskan island of Kodiak, close to the epicentre, urged listeners to move away from coastal areas.

LISTEN: Jon McComb talks to news anchor Gord Macdonald about the tsunami warning



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Evacuations were also in place for parts of B.C.

“This is a tsunami warning. this is not a drill. Please get out to higher ground,” said the announcer on KMXT public radio. “If you are on the flats, get up on one of the hills … Just go high.”

There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

— With files from Reuters