A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, killing at least 53 people and shaking buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
The quake hit at 9:05am (8:20am PST), with its epicentre located in Tingri, a rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.
The US Geological Service put the quake’s magnitude at 7.1.
At least 53 people had been killed and 62 injured on the Tibetan side, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
A magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in 2015, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in Nepal’s worst ever earthquake. Among the dead were at least 18 people killed at the Mount Everest base camp when it was smashed by an avalanche.
Tuesday’s epicentre was around 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.
Winter is not a popular season for climbers and hikers in Nepal, with a German climber the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Mount Everest.
He had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, Lilathar Awasthi, a Department of Tourism official, said.
Nepals National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.
“So far we have not received any information of any loss of life and property,” NDRRMA spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters.
“We have mobilised police, security forces and local authorities to collection information,” he said.
Many villages in the Nepalese border area, which are sparsely populated, are remote and can only be reached by foot.
Aftershocks, damage
The impact of the temblor was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people. The region is administered by Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said all-out search and rescue efforts should be carried out to minimise casualties, properly resettle the affected people, and ensure a safe and warm winter.
Villages in Tingri reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video on social media showing the aftermath from the town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery.
There are three townships and 27 villages within 20km of the epicentre, with a total population of around 6,900, Xinhua reported. Local government officials were liaising with nearby towns to gauge the impact of the quake and check for casualties, it added.
Tremors were also felt in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu some 400 km away, where residents ran from their houses.
The quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
