INTERNATIONAL – The earthquake was felt as far away as neighboring Nepal. A powerful earthquake that occurred this Tuesday, January 7 in the Himalayan region of Tibet, in southwest China, left more than 50 dead and caused enormous material damage.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake (on the Richter scale of up to 10 Editor’s note) struck Dingri township, located near the Sino-Nepal border, at precisely 9:05 a.m. (local time), according to China’s national earthquake agency (CENC). The American Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.1.
“Fifty-three people died and 62 others were injured”indicated the official Xinhua news agency. A previous provisional report reported 32 deaths.
Gutted walls, collapsed roofs
“The tremors were very strongly felt in and around the canton of Dingri and many buildings collapsed near the epicenter”indicated Chinese public television CCTV.
Videos broadcast by 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.
Freezing temperatures
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 370 km southwest of the regional capital Lhasa, according to CENC data.
Xinhua reported that local authorities were visiting the various communes of the canton “in order 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.
While earthquakes are common in the region, Tuesday’s quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200-kilometer radius in the last five years, the CENC said.
Until Kathmandu
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.
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.
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