At least 53 people have been confirmed dead and 62 are injured after a major earthquake struck China’s mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning, Chinese state media reported.
The earthquake that hit Tibet’s holy Shigatse city around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, which also showed a series of aftershocks in the area.
Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal and parts of India.
Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line.
Shigatse is considered one of the holiest cities of Tibet. It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.
Chinese state media reported the earthquake as having a slightly lesser magnitude of 6.8, causing “obvious” tremors and leading to the damage of over 1,000 houses.
Social media posts show collapsing buildings and there have been several strong aftershocks.
“After a major earthquake, there is always a gradual attenuation process,” Jiang Haikun, a researcher at the China Earthquake Networks Center, told CCTV.
While another earthquake of around magnitude 5 may still occur, Jiang said, “the likelihood of a larger earthquake is low”.
The Chinese air force has launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected area, which sits at the foot of Mount Everest and where temperatures are well below freezing.
Both power and water in the region have been cut off.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has also called for all-out search and rescue efforts to minimise casualties and resettle affected residents.
While tremors were felt in Nepal, no damage or casualties were reported, a local official in Nepal’s Namche region, near Everest, told AFP.
Tibet’s earthquake bureau told the BBC on Tuesday that they were unable to provide estimates on casualties as they were still verifying the numbers.
The region, which lies near a major fault line of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, is home to frequent seismic activity. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured over 20,000.
