An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.4 struck the Alaskan Peninsula on Wednesday, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences said.

The US Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 7.8 and said it hit at 0612 UTC about 804 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, and around 60 miles or 96 kilometres southeast of the remote settlement of Perryville.

The quake triggered a tsunami warning for areas in south Alaska, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands within 300 kilometres of the epicenter. The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).

Alaska is part of the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire. The peninsula was hit by a 9.2-magnitude earthquake in March 1964 – the strongest ever recorded in North America. More than 250 people were killed in that disaster.