Earthquake Hits Tibet: 32 Dead, Buildings Collapse in Devastating Aftermath

Earthquake Hits Tibet: The death toll from a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake in a mountainous Tibetan region that caused massive tremors in Nepal, Bhutan and India on Tuesday morning soared to 53.

The earthquake, which struck at 9.05am local time, was centred in Tibet’s Tingri County in Xigaze City at a depth of about 10km, the US Geological Survey reported.

The epicenter was in the rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region. China’s earthquake centre had placed the magnitude at 6.8.

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State broadcaster CCTV said there are a handful of communities within three miles of the epicenter, which was 240 miles from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and about 14 miles from the region’s second-largest city of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.

About 140 miles away in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake woke up residents and sent them running out of their homes into the streets. No information was immediately available from the remote, mountainous areas of Nepal closer to the epicenter.

“Fifty-three people have been confirmed dead and 62 injured as of Tuesday noon, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County in the city of Xigaze in Xizang Autonomous Region at 9:05 am Tuesday,” Xinhua news agency said.

Over 1,000 houses have sustained varying degrees of damage, it added.

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“Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicentre have collapsed,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday emphasised “the full-scale search and rescue efforts, minimizing casualties to the greatest extent possible, properly resettling affected residents, and ensuring their safety and warmth through the winter”, CCTV added.

Xinhua said that “local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake”.

Disaster relief aid, including cotton tents, quilts and items for high-altitude and frigid areas, had been dispatched by central authorities to areas impacted by the quake, Xinhua said.

The high-altitude county in the Tibet region is home to around 62,000 people and situated on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.

While earthquakes are common in the region, Tuesday’s quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200-kilometre radius in the last five years, the CENC added.

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