A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, killing at least 53 people and damaging buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India, Reuters reported, citing Chinese authorities.
The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake struck at 9:05 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was in Tingri, a rural county in China known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1.
The powerful earthquake killed at least 53 people and injured 62 on the Tibetan side, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
དེ་རིང་ཟླ་དང་པོའི་ཚེས་ ༧ ཉིན་གྱི་ཞོགས་པའི་ཆུ་ཚོད་ ༩།༠༥ ཙམ་ལ། བོད་ལྗོངས་གཞིས་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དིང་རི་རྫོང་དུ་ས་ཡོམ་རིམ་པ་ ༦་༨ བརྒྱབ་པ་དང་། མི་དགུ་ཙམ་འདས་གྲོངས་སོང་འདུག pic.twitter.com/bCgMQkT7vN
— Voice Of Tibet (@VOT_Tibetan) January 7, 2025
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven mountainous districts bordering Tibet.
"We have not received any information about casualties or damage so far. We have mobilized police, security forces and local authorities to gather information," NDRRMA spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters.
It is noted that many villages on the Nepalese border are sparsely populated, remote and can only be reached on foot.
🚨#BREAKING: Footage of damage after Huge M7.1 earthquake in Tibet kills at least 53.
— World Source News 24/7 (@Worldsource24) January 7, 2025
Tremors felt across Nepal and China. pic.twitter.com/2v8LXgh55b
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