A strong earthquake has killed dozens of people in Tibet on Tuesday, January 7, and left many others trapped as multiple aftershocks shook the region of western China and across the border in Nepal.
State media said at least 53 people had been killed, and 62 other people were injured, citing the regional disaster relief headquarters. About 1,500 fire and rescue workers were deployed to search for people in the rubble, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
“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.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured magnitude 7.1 and was relatively shallow at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). China recorded the magnitude as 6.8.
The epicenter was about 75 kilometers northeast of Mount Everest, which straddles the border. The area is seismically active and is where the India and Eurasia plates clash and cause uplifts in the Himalayan mountains strong enough to change the heights of some of the world’s tallest peaks.
State broadcaster CCTV said there are a handful of communities within 5 kilometers of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and about 23 kilometers from the region’s second-largest city of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday emphasized “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 reported.
