Around 10 tons of blankets, camping stoves, bottled water, gas cylinders and building materials such as nails and roof tiles were ready to be sent to the region, RIA-Novosti news agency said.

Dozens of people were injured and around 500 were evacuated after a series of violent earthquakes measuring up to 7.9 on the Richter scale shook the remote region on Friday, affecting 12 villages with a total population of 12,000 people.

There have been more than 100 aftershocks since Friday, experts told AFP, with some being felt as far as the village of Palana, 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the epicentre of the earthquakes.

Around 1,500 emergency workers are currently operating in the region and electricity has been restored to parts of Tilichiki, one of the worst-hit villages, Leginov said.

But there was still only radio contact with another settlement, Khailino, where a strong smell of hydrogen sulphide has been reported coming from a nearby river, he added.

Kamchatka, which is the size of Japan, has a population density of less than one person per square kilometres (0.4 square miles).

In 1952, the region was rocked by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, the fourth biggest since 1900, according to data from the US Geological Survey.

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