Keystone-SDA
A powerful earthquake on Tuesday in the Himalayan region of Tibet, in southwest China, killed at least 126 people and caused the collapse of many buildings. The earthquake was felt as far away as neighboring Nepal.
This content was published on
January 7, 2025 – 4:10 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Videos broadcast by Chinese state television CCTV show homes with gutted walls and collapsed roofs, with stones littering the ground. Other images from the channel show partially buried vehicles or customers of a convenience store fleeing the store when the earthquake knocks products from the shelves.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the canton of Tingri, located not far from the Sino-Nepalese border, at 9:05 a.m. (02:05 a.m. Swiss time), according to the Chinese national earthquake agency (CENC). The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.1.
“A total of 126 dead and 188 injured were confirmed at 7:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. Swiss time) on Tuesday,” announced the official Xinhua news agency. The previous toll was 95 dead.
The situation is “very serious”, Sangji Dangzhi, 34, whose supermarket located in Tingri canton suffered considerable damage, told AFP by telephone. He said ambulances were transporting people to hospital all day.
“The houses are built of earth here, so when the earthquake happened, many houses collapsed,” he explained.
The damage appears significant in the commune of Lhatsé, according to a witness interviewed by AFP. “Some of the older houses collapsed, and many of the brick buildings had large cracks,” Meng Lingkang, a 23-year-old tourist traveling with friends, said of the situation there.
Freezing temperatures
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.
Xinhua reported that local authorities were visiting the various communes of Dingri canton “to assess the repercussions of the earthquake”.
Authorities have sent emergency aid, including cotton tents, quilts and other equipment useful to withstand the harsh weather conditions, the agency said.
Temperatures there are around -8°C during the day and could drop to -18°C tonight, according to China’s 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).
The earthquake was the deadliest in China since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in the country’s southwest province of Yunnan.
In May 2008, a very powerful earthquake, measuring 7.9, left 87,000 people dead or missing in the province of Sichuan (southwest). The disaster was a national shock.
