A powerful earthquake in China's remote Tibet region killed at least 53 people and collapsed "many buildings" today, state media reported, with tremors 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.
Photo: Xinhua via AP
The quake struck Dingri county with a magnitude of 6.8 near the border with Nepal at 9:05am, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
The US Geological Survey reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.
"Fifty-three people have been confirmed dead, and 62 others injured as of Tuesday noon, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County in the city of Xigaze in Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region at 9:05 am Tuesday," Xinhua news agency said.
"Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicenter have collapsed," state broadcaster CCTV said earlier.
Xinhua said "local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake."
Temperatures in Dingri are around minus-8°C and will drop to minus-18°C this evening, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
The high-altitude county in the Tibet region is home to around 62,000 people and situated on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.
While earthquakes are common in the region, today's quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200km radius in the past five years, the CENC added.
As well as Kathmandu, areas around Lobuche in Nepal in the high mountains near Everest were also rattled by the tremor and aftershocks.
"It shook quite strongly here, everyone is awake," said government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in Nepal's Namche region, which lies nearer to Everest.
However, no damage or deaths had been reported so far and security forces had been deployed, Nepali Home Minister spokesman Rishi Ram Tiwari said.
Nepal 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.
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