KEY POINTS
- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck China’s Tibet region.
- Tremors were also felt in Nepal, Bhutan, and India.
- Rescuers face challenges as temperatures drop to minus 16°C.
- Pakistan extends support to Chinese people and govt in their relief efforts.
BEIJING: A devastating earthquake in China’s Tibet region killed at least 126 people and damaged thousands of buildings on Tuesday, state media reported, with tremors also felt in neighbouring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and parts of India.
Using their hands and shovels in frigid conditions, rescue workers dug through the rubble in the search for survivors after a deadly 7.1-magnitude earthquake toppled houses and jolted people awake.
Videos published by China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed houses destroyed with walls torn apart.
Rescue workers waded through rubble strewn across the ruins in the aftermath, footage showed, while some gave locals thick blankets to keep warm in subzero temperatures.
The quake struck rural, high-altitude Tingri county, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Mount Everest near China’s border with Nepal, at around 9:00 am (0100 GMT) on Tuesday.
“Here the houses are made from dirt so when the earthquake came… lots of houses collapsed,” 34-year-old Sangji Dangzhi, whose supermarket in Tingri suffered considerable damage.
Speaking to AFP by phone, Sangji described the situation as “very serious”, with ambulances taking people to hospital throughout the day.
Surveillance images published by CCTV showed people running through a store’s aisles as shelves shook violently, sending objects like toys tumbling to the ground.
A total of 126 people have been confirmed dead and 188 others injured as of 7:00 pm (1100 GMT) Tuesday,” Xinhua reported.
Twenty-eight people in critical condition were transferred to hospital for treatment and 3,609 houses had collapsed, CCTV reported.
The China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC) measured the quake’s magnitude as 6.8, while the US Geological Survey reported it as 7.1.
When tourist Meng Lingkang arrived in the town of Lhatse, 65 kilometres from the epicentre, “the buildings had cracked open”.
“Some of the older houses collapsed, and a large part of the buildings made from bricks had cracked open, with big fissures,” the 23-year-old told AFP.
All-out rescue efforts
The area most affected is surrounded by mountainous terrain on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.
Tingri, the epicentre, is home to around 62,000 people, and is less developed than urban centres like Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Many of the fallen houses appeared to be constructed using traditional materials such as stone, mud bricks and wooden beams.
CCTV, citing the emergency command centre, reported that the earthquake emergency response status in the region was raised to the highest level.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for “all-out search and rescue efforts, minimising casualties to the greatest extent possible, properly resettling affected residents, and ensuring their safety and warmth through the winter”, the state broadcaster said.
Temperatures in Tingri are projected to drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit) overnight, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
Authorities said more than 3,400 rescuers and over 340 medical workers had been deployed.
Aid including cotton tents, quilts and cold-weather equipment had been dispatched by central authorities, state news agency Xinhua said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his “sincerest condolences”, saying Russia “shares the grief of those who have lost relatives and close ones”.
Pakistan expressed heartfelt condolences over the tragic loss of lives in the earthquake.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said Pakistan extends its support to the Chinese people and government in their relief efforts. “Our thoughts remain with the injured and those still missing,” it added.
We are deeply saddened by the devastating earthquake that struck the Tibet Autonomous Region this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those affected by this tragedy. May they find strength and comfort during this difficult time. We…
— Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) January 7, 2025
Expressing grief over the loss of lives and financial losses due to the earthquake, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said his sympathies were with the Chinese government, people and earthquake victims.
“In this moment of sorrow, I stand in solidarity with my Chinese brothers and sisters,” said the president.
Shook quite strongly
As well as Kathmandu, areas around Lobuche — in the high mountains near Everest in Nepal — were also rattled by the tremor and aftershocks.
“It shook quite strongly here, everyone is awake,” said government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in the Namche region, which lies closer to Everest.
Security forces had been deployed but no damage or deaths had been reported so far, Nepali home ministry 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.
In 2015, nearly 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.
The quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India and Bhutan said.
Tuesday’s quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200-kilometre (124-mile) radius in the last five years, the CENC said.
A quake in December 2023 in northwest China killed 148 people and displaced thousands in Gansu province.
It was China’s deadliest since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.
Tremors, aftershocks
Villages in Tingri, where the average elevation is around 4,000-5,000 metres (13,000-16,000 feet), reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video on social media showing the aftermath in the town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
The Tingri tremor was caused by a rupture in what is known as the Lhasa block in an area under north-south compression and west-east stress, CCTV reported, citing Chinese experts.
Since 1950, there have been 21 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above in the Lhasa block, the largest of which was the 6.9-magnitude quake in Mainling in 2017, according to CCTV.
