A powerful earthquake on Tuesday in the Himalayan region of Tibet, in southwest China, killed at least 95 people and caused the collapse of numerous buildings, an earthquake felt as far away as neighboring Nepal.
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The 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Dingri township, located not far from the Sino-Nepal border, at 9:05 a.m. (1:05 a.m. GMT), according to China’s national earthquake agency (CENC). . The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.1.
Videos broadcast by Chinese state television CCTV show white homes 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 the products on the shelves to fall to the ground.
Firefighters in orange uniforms arrived at the scene, amid rubble and among survivors and elderly people wrapped in blankets, according to CCTV videos.
“In total, 95 people died and 130 others injured” according to a final count, said the official Xinhua news agency. A previous report reported 53 deaths.
“Many buildings collapsed near the epicenter,” CCTV said.
The situation is “very serious,” Sangji Dangzhi, 34, whose supermarket in Dingri canton suffered considerable damage, told AFP by telephone. He said ambulances transported people to hospital throughout the day.
“The houses are built of earth here, so when the earthquake happened, a lot of houses collapsed,” he explained.
“Go all out”
In the small town of Lhatse, videos geotagged by AFP show debris scattered in front of restaurants on a street.
The epicenter is about 370 km southwest of the regional capital Lhasa, according to CENC data.
Authorities have sent emergency aid, including cotton tents, quilts and other equipment useful to withstand the harsh weather conditions, the agency said.
Temperatures in the area of the tragedy are around -8°C during the day and could drop to -18°C tonight, according to the Chinese National Meteorological Bureau.
The canton of Dingri has around 62,000 inhabitants and is located not far from the Chinese side of Everest.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “every effort to carry out search and rescue operations as well as treat the injured,” according to CCTV.
“Everything must be done to minimize human losses” and “rehouse those affected,” he said.
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.
Murderous precedents
In Nepal, the earthquake, which was particularly felt in 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.
An earthquake in December 2023 left 148 dead and thousands homeless in the Chinese province of Gansu (northwest).
In 2014, more than 600 people were killed in Yunnan province, in the southwest of the country.
In May 2008, a very powerful earthquake, measuring 7.9, left 87,000 dead or missing in the province of Sichuan (southwest). The disaster was a national shock.
