China earthquake: Dozens dead as magnitude 7.1 tremor hits Tibet

At the very least 32 folks have been confirmed lifeless after a significant earthquake struck China’s mountainous Tibet area on Tuesday morning, Chinese language state media reported.

The earthquake that hit Tibet’s holy Shigatse metropolis round 09:00 native time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of seven.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), in line with information from the US Geological Survey, which additionally confirmed a sequence of aftershocks within the space.

Tremors have been additionally felt in neighbouring Nepal and components of India.

Earthquakes are widespread within the area, which lies on a significant geological fault line.

Shigatse is taken into account one of many holiest cities of Tibet. It’s the conventional seat of the Panchen Lama, a key determine of Tibetan Buddhism whose non secular authority is second solely to the Dalai Lama.

Chinese language state media reported the earthquake as having a barely lesser magnitude of 6.8, inflicting “apparent” tremors and resulting in the collapse of many homes.

Social media posts present collapsing buildings and there have been a number of robust aftershocks.

“After a significant earthquake, there’s at all times a gradual attenuation course of,” Jiang Haikun, a researcher on the China Earthquake Networks Heart, instructed CCTV.

Whereas one other earthquake of round magnitude 5 should happen, Jiang stated, “the chance of a bigger earthquake is low”.

The Chinese language air power has launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected space, which sits on the foot of Mount Everest and the place temperatures are effectively under freezing.

Each energy and water within the area have been reduce off.

Whereas tremors have been felt in Nepal, no injury or casualties have been reported, an area official in Nepal’s Namche area, close to Everest, instructed AFP.

Tibet’s earthquake bureau instructed the PJDM on Tuesday that they have been unable to offer estimates on casualties as they have been nonetheless verifying the numbers.

The area, which lies on a significant fault line the place the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, is dwelling to frequent seismic exercise. In 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake close to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killed almost 9,000 folks and injured over 20,000.