MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Friday issued a tsunami warning for the Sakhalin Island region in its Far East after a deep sea earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.2 by the USGS.

"Inhabitants need to leave dangerous regions and go to higher ground," the Sakhalin branch of the Russian emergencies ministry said in the warning.

The USGS placed the epicentre of the quake in the Sea of Okhotsk of the Kamchatka Peninsula at a depth of more than 600 km.