At least 16 people have died and dozens were injured after a magnitude 7 earthquake struck Tibet on Thursday, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The epicenter was 183 kilometers East-Northeast of the city of Nagqu in the Tibet region, according to the United States Geological Survey.
At least 339 houses have collapsed and the extent of the damage is still being assessed, according to Xinhua. A rescue team has been dispatched to the epicenter.
Emergency response activated as damage assessed
Railway authorities have suspended train services through the affected areas, according to state media CCTV.
The China Earthquake Administration has activated a level II emergency response, its second-highest tier, Chinese broadcaster CGTN said.
In villages near the epicenter, authorities have found at least two injured people and houses with visible cracks, Reuters reported citing a state broadcaster.
Videos released by local media showed people leaving their homes as the quake struck, Reuters reported.
The average elevation within a 5-kilometer radius of the epicenter exceeds 4,800 meters, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
Region vulnerable to powerful earthquakes
China is no stranger to powerful quakes, especially in southwestern parts of the country where the Eurasian tectonic plate meets the Indian plate, a dramatic collision that creates the mighty Himalayas and the vast Tibetan plateau.
Thursday’s earthquake comes roughly two months after the catastrophic flooding disaster on the edge of the Tibetan plateau on the border with Nepal, that was sparked by a huge glacier collapse and landslide. It killed at least 1,300 people and left more than 5,000 missing.
The last comparably-strong earthquake to rock China occurred in January 2024, when a 7.1-magnitude quake hit a mountainous and remote part of China’s far western Xinjiang region, killing three people and injuring scores more.
In December 2023, over one hundred people were killed when an earthquake hit China’s Jishishan county in Gansu province, northwest China, making it the country’s deadliest in nearly a decade.
Source: CNN
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