Major quake hits Russian Far East
 

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 jolted a sparsely populated area of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

A duty officer at the Koryakia division of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said there are reports of injuries but no fatalities.

The quake's epicenter, the officer said, was not far from the village of Telichiki, which has a population of about 2,000. The officer said there were reports of minor damage to an airstrip at the local airport.

The temblor struck at 12:25 p.m. Friday (7:25 p.m. Thursday ET), the USGS reported. Its epicenter was 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Il'pyrskiy, Russia, and nearly 4,000 miles north-northeast of Moscow.