A major earthquake has struck the Himalayas near Mt Everest and the border of Tibet and Nepal, killing people, damaging buildings and sending people running to the streets in Tibet, Nepal and India.
On the Tibet side, at least 95 people had died and 130 were injured after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County at 9:05 am local time (01:05 GMT), Tuesday, Chinese state media agency Xinhua said.
Over 1000 houses had sustained varying degrees of damage, on the Tibet side of the border, it added.
The quake, centred close to the Tibetan city of Shigatse, considered one of the area's holiest, was 10km deep, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.
The US Geological Survey reported the quake as magnitude 7.1.
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 of the earthquake, footage showed, while some gave locals thick blankets to keep warm.
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.
In the town of Lhatse, videos geolocated by AFP showed debris scattered in front of streetside eateries.
"Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicentre have collapsed," CCTV said, and "multiple aftershocks" had been recorded.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said all-out search and rescue efforts should be carried out to minimise casualties, properly resettle the affected people, and ensure a safe and warm winter.
Xinhua news agency said "local authorities are reaching out to various townships in the county to assess the impact of the quake".
Shigatse (also known as Xigazê, or Rikaz), is the seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism, whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama. Dingri county is on the side of Mount Everest.
Temperatures in Dingri are around -8 degrees Celsius and will drop to -18 this evening, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
More than 1500 local firefighters and rescue workers had been dispatched to the affected areas, Xinhua reported, and 22,000 items including cotton tents, cotton coats, quilts and folding beds had also been sent to the region, it said.
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, Tuesday's quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200-kilometre radius in the last five years, the CENC added.
Quake shakes Nepal, Mt Everest, Bhutan and India
The quake was felt in Nepal's capital Kathmandu some 400 km away, where residents ran from their houses.
An AFP reporter said in Nepal, powerful tremors shook buildings in the capital Kathmandu just before dawn on Tuesday.
The US Geological Survey's earthquakes map showed one large earthquake (at UTC 1.05) for the Himalayas region, affecting both Nepal and Tibet. It measured it at 7.1, with the epicentre 93 km from Lobuche in Nepal, along the mountainous border with Tibet in China.
The agency's map also showed a series of strong aftershocks in the same area since the 7.1 quake, in magnitudes of low 5's or high 4's.
Officials in Kathmandu said they were checking for damage. One person was injured in Kathmandu when he jumped off the top of a house after feeling the strong tremors, Nepal Police spokesman Bishwa Adhikari said. The man was being treated in hospital.
Areas around Lobuche in Nepal, in the high mountains near Mount Everest, were also rattled by the tremors 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 than Kathmandu.
The epicentre was about 80km north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.
Winter is not a popular season for climbers and hikers in Nepal, with a German climber the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Mount Everest. He had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, Lilathar Awasthi, a Department of Tourism official, said.
Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.
"So far we have not received any information of any loss of life and property," NDRRMA spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters. "We have mobilised police, security forces and local authorities to collect information," he said.
Many villages in the Nepalese border area, which are sparsely populated, are remote and can only be reached by foot.
Shaking was also felt in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and in the northern Indian state of Bihar (bordering Nepal), where people also rushed from their homes as their walls shook.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property had been received, officials in India and Bhutan said.
Area vulnerable to earthquakes could become home to massive new hydropower dam
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.
Tuesday's earthquake was caused by a rupture in what is known as the Lhasa block, 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.
Mainling is located in the lower reaches of Tibet's Yarlung Zangbo river where China is planning to build the world's largest hydropower dam.
In 2015, nearly 9000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.
Southwestern parts of China are also frequently hit by earthquakes. A huge quake in Sichuan province in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.
A quake in December 2023 in northwest China killed 148 people and displaced thousands in Gansu province. In that case, subzero temperatures made the aid operation launched in response even more challenging, with survivors huddled around outdoor fires to keep warm.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in neighbouring Nepal, killing about 9000 people and injuring thousands in that country's worst earthquake.
- RNZ
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