A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck a mountainous region in Tibet and neighboring Nepal on Tuesday morning, damaging buildings and killing at least 9 people.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep in Tibet. The China Earthquake Networks Center put it at 6.8 on the Richter scale.
Chinese media reported that “people have died” in the earthquake, which was felt in India, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
“A reporter from the Tibet Autonomous Region Earthquake Bureau learned that people died in three towns in Dingri county, including Changsuo, Quluo township and Cuoguo township,” Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency reported. It added that many buildings in Dingri county had collapsed after the quake.
The tremor was felt in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, where residents ran from their homes about 400 kilometers from the quake.
Only a handful of communities were within 5 kilometers of the epicenter of the earthquake, which was 380 kilometers from the Tibetan capital, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
In the past five years, 29 earthquakes measuring 3 or higher on the Richter scale have occurred within 200 kilometers of the Shigatse quake, all smaller than the one that struck Tuesday morning.
In November 2023, a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Nepal, killing at least 138 people and injuring dozens more.
In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Kathmandu in neighboring Nepal, the deadliest earthquake in that country, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands more.
In 2008, a major earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people.
