False Tsunami

An emergency coastal evacuation was today ordered in Japan as the country braced itself for an imminent tsunami.

Hundreds of thousands were warned to leave their coastal homes as the tsunami swept towards the Pacific coastline following a large ( over 8 on the Richter scale)undersea earthquake near the Kuril Islands north of Japan at around 11.15 GMT.

The eastern Russian coastline was also expected to be hit.

A tsunami of around two metres was expected to hit Hokkaido and Honshu islands – but experts predicted the wave could be up to five times higher in restricted areas like river estuaries....

In the end the 'tsunami' was only 14 inches (35cm) high