By Deborah Nnamdi
An earthquake in the Tibet region of China on Tuesday killed no fewer than 53 people and collapsed many buildings.
Reports said that tremors were also felt in neighboring Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and parts of India.
Videos published by China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed destroyed houses with walls torn apart and rubble strewn across the ruins in the aftermath of the earthquake.
According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, CENC, the quake struck Dingri County with a magnitude of 6.8 near the border with Nepal at 9:05 am (01:05 GMT).
Similarly, the US Geological Survey reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.Xinhua news agency, citing the regional disaster relief headquarters said, “Thirty-two people have been confirmed dead and 38 injured during the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that jolted Dingri County in the city of Xigaze in Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region at 9:05 am Tuesday“
Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicenter have collapsed.
According to the report, local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake.
China Meteorological Administration said Temperatures in Dingri are around minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and will drop to minus 18 this evening.
The high-altitude county in the Tibet region is home to around 62,000 people and is situated on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.
The CENC added that 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 tremors and aftershocks also rattled Kathmandu and areas around Lobuche in Nepal in the high mountains near Everest.
“It shook quite strongly here, everyone is awake,” said government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in Nepal’s Namche region, which lies nearer to Everest.
Nepal reportedly lies on a major geological faultline where the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence.
In 2015, nearly 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.
Some tremors were felt in Bihar state in India but no injuries were reported.
Three people were killed and dozens injured after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck along the mountainous China-Kyrgyzstan border in January last year.A quake in December 2023 in northwest China killed 148 people and displaced thousands in Gansu province.
That quake was China’s deadliest since 2014 when more than 600 people were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.
In the December 2023 earthquake, subzero temperatures made the aid operation launched in response even more challenging, with survivors huddled around outdoor fires to keep warm.
