Authorities say more than 12,000 people have been relocated. The quake is China’s strongest since January 2024.
BEIJING – A magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck northern Tibet on Thursday night has killed at least 16 people and injured 76, Chinese authorities said Friday, and hundreds of homes collapsed. Search and rescue efforts continued, and authorities have warned the death toll could rise, Al Jazeera reported.
The quake hit at 10:33 p.m. local time (14:33 GMT). The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was in a mountainous area about 190 kilometers (118 miles) east-northeast of the city of Nagqu and 390 kilometers (242 miles) northeast of the regional capital, Lhasa. It is the strongest earthquake to hit China since January 2024, Reuters reported.
Xinhua initially reported 16 dead and 32 injured. State broadcaster CCTV later reported 46 injured, 11 of them seriously, and Reuters reported that local authorities raised the figure to 65 and then to 76 at a Friday press conference, while the death count stayed at 16. The Nagqu media office said at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed. More than 1,600 people from the local county were deployed for rescue, and more than 300 police officers were sent to the epicentre to check on damaged homes and help people relocate. Xinhua said more than 12,000 people have been moved to safety. The China Earthquake Networks Center recorded 413 aftershocks. Rockfalls forced authorities to close a section of National Highway 317 to everything but emergency and rescue traffic, and a level II emergency response, the second-highest tier, was activated.
Local authorities found at least two injured people in a village near the epicentre, and houses in the nearest villages showed cracks, according to Xinhua. State media videos showed people leaving their homes and sheltering outdoors or in parked cars. Social media images relayed by Reuters showed students sleeping in a playground. Authorities suggested the sparse population in the area may have helped keep the death toll relatively low so far.
The quake came about two months after catastrophic flash flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border on Aug. 26, which killed at least 1,300 people and left thousands missing. Tibet and southwestern China are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
This report draws on information from Reuters, CNN, Al Jazeera and The Korea Times.