A magnitude 6.8 earthquake has struck near one of Tibet’s holiest cities, the China Earthquake Networks Centre has said, damaging buildings around Shigatse and sending people running to the streets in neighbouring Nepal and India.
State media said 53 people had died and more than 60 had been injured in the quake, which hit at 9.05am on Tuesday. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centred in the Tibet region at a depth of about 10km (6 miles). It measured it the tremor at a magnitude 7.1. China recorded the magnitude as 6.8.
“Fifty-three people have been confirmed dead, and 62 others injured as of Tuesday noon, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County in the city of Xigaze in Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region at 9:05 am Tuesday,” Xinhua news agency said.
Xinhua said “local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake”.
“Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicentre have collapsed,” state broadcaster CCTV said earlier. It said more than 40 aftershocks had been registered by midday, including 16 above magnitude 3.0.
National authorities have raised its emergency response to the highest level of four, dispatching tens of thousands of tents, coats, blankets, and beds, CCTV reported.
Dingri is a county home to about 60,000 people, according to 2020 figures. The average altitude in the area around the epicentre, which borders the Himalayas, is about 4,200 meters. Temperatures in Dingri are around minus 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) and will drop to minus 18 this evening, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video showing the aftermath from the nearby town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out on to the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery. The date could not be verified independently.
Tremors were felt in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu 400km (250 miles) away, where residents ran from their houses.
Tremors were also felt in the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal. As walls shook, people rushed out of their homes and apartments to open areas.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
A magnitude 6.8 quake is considered strong and is capable of causing severe damage.
Southwestern parts of China are frequently hit by earthquakes. A huge quake in Sichuan province in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.
According to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, there have been 29 earthquakes with magnitudes of three or higher within 200km of the Shigatse quake in the past five years, all of which were smaller than the one that struck on Tuesday morning.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in neighbouring Nepal, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in that country’s worst earthquake.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
