Good Morning Britain halted for 'breaking news' in devastating tsunami update

Good Morning Britain was halted for breaking news as an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia has left all pacific coastlines, but particularly Hawaii, in danger of a deadly tsunami. Although San Francisco is in the direct line of the quake the show's meteorologist Laura Tobin explained why Hawaii was the likely target for the disaster.

Speaking to hosts Ed Balls and Kate Garraway on the ITV show she explained: "It's the size that the earthquake was and the way that the energy is dissipated outward. We have also loads of different types of earthquakes on Earth, but this is the worst kind. It's called a thrust earthquake, where you get two tectonic plates, one moving on together, and that's why so much energy is released, and it's because of the way that that moves, and that's what drives the waste across the ocean. This is kind of largely going south, she said.

During the report they also spoke to journalist in Hawaii Alexa Freeman who explained what the situation was like on the ground.

Expling the current situation she said: "About 30 minutes ago was when they were anticipating the first wave might hit. We have not had that yet.

"As of a moment ago, at least, we're seeing some receding though in the water. So that's a sign of things to come. Yeah, we're expecting it to come in waves - no pun intended.

"We're all just, it's like the calm before the storm here, we're all just sitting on pins and needles, waiting to see what's going to happen. It's pretty scary," she acknowledged.

"It's 7:45pm so everyone, pretty much everything, in the state, has kind of shut down. A lot of summer programmes for kids, because we're on holiday now (have closed).

"A lot of office buildings have closed early, so I'm pretty sure most people already headed home or headed to safety.

But...the sun has just gone down. It's just getting dark here now. The sunset looks like the same as any other night, like you wouldn't know anything was coming if you didn't know (about it)," she said.

Warnings are now in place across the entirety of the US west coast, along with Japan's east coast following the powerful quake which remains one of the largest in recent years.