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A major 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook Tibet, southwest China, on Tuesday morning. Many buildings collapsed. An initial assessment, still provisional, shows 53 deaths.
Tibet shook last night. A powerful earthquake of magnitude occurred in this Himalayan region of southwest China, at 2:05 a.m. Paris time. The magnitude was 6.8 according to the Chinese National Earthquake Agency (CENC) and 7.1 according to the American Geological Survey (USGS). The earthquake was felt in neighboring Nepal. The initial toll is 53 dead and 82 injured.
Videos broadcast by Chinese state television CCTV show white-colored homes at high altitude, with gutted walls and collapsed roofs, with stones littering the ground. Other images from the channel show vehicles buried under bricks or customers of a convenience store fleeing the store when the earthquake causes products on the shelves to fall to the ground.
Firefighters in orange uniforms arrived at the scene of the disaster, amid rubble and near survivors and elderly people wrapped in blankets, according to CCTV videos.
?BREAKING: TIBET EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 53
The death toll from the powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Tibet has climbed to 53, state-run media confirms.
Rescue efforts continue in Dingri County, where numerous buildings collapsed.
The quake, felt across… https://t.co/JRwvY9eDxA pic.twitter.com/B2URUbxsRY
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1876497231286550842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
#earthquake– More than 32 died in 7.1 magnitude earthquake earthquake hits #Tibet and #Nepal. tremors jolt felt in bordering Indian areas as well. Footage is of Tibet’s Lhatse. #TibetEarthquake #Nepal #disaster #Tremors pic.twitter.com/0CItruT4wW
— Irfan Khan (@irfankhannews) https://twitter.com/irfankhannews/status/1876498690015383779?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Strong 7.0 earthquake that hit #Tibet region made significant damage. Earthquake was widely felt in Nepal and India. #Earthquake ………Over 53 people killed in Tibet pic.twitter.com/ZFqG9e1gXm
— Kashmir News Trust༝ (@knewstrust) https://twitter.com/knewstrust/status/1876515450043179102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A high altitude region, freezing temperatures
Xinhua reported that local authorities were visiting the canton’s various communes “to assess the repercussions of the earthquake.” This high altitude canton has around 62,000 inhabitants and is located not far from the Chinese side of Everest. Temperatures there are around -8°C during the day and could drop to -18°C tonight, according to China’s National Meteorological Bureau. If earthquakes are frequent in the region, this Tuesday’s earthquake is the most powerful recorded within a radius of 200 kilometers in the last five years, said the CENC.
In Nepal, the earthquake, which was felt as far as the capital Kathmandu, struck areas around Namche and Lobuche, very close to Everest base camp. “It shook quite hard here, everyone is awake but we are not aware of any damage at the moment,” said Jagat Prasad Bhusal, an official in the Namche region in northeastern Nepal.
Previous deadly earthquakes
The Himalayas lie on the divide between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and experience regular seismic activity. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people and injured more than 22,000 in Nepal, destroying more than 500,000 homes. An earthquake in December 2023 left 148 dead and thousands homeless in the Chinese province of Gansu (northwest). The earthquake was the deadliest in China since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in the country’s southwest province of Yunnan.
