Earthquake in Tibet kills more than 120, striking near holy Buddhist city

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, people stand amidst damaged houses in the aftermath of an earthquake in Tonglai Village, Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING/KATHMANDU -

A strong earthquake struck the foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, killing at least 126 people and flattening hundreds of houses, Chinese authorities said.

The magnitude 6.8 quake's epicentre was about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Tremors also shook buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and India.

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The impact was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people. The region is administered from Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.

Many homes in Shigatse city were reduced to rubble, video released by Tibet Fire and Rescue showed. Rescue workers searched through the debris of a ruined home and pulled out one injured person, it showed.

Adding to the misery for those left homeless, temperatures in the region had fallen to -6 C late on Tuesday, and were forecast to drop as low as -16 C overnight.

The China Earthquake Networks Centre located the epicentre at Tingri county, known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km. The U.S. Geological Service put the quake's magnitude at 7.1. It struck at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT).

At least 126 people were known to have been killed and 188 injured on the Tibetan side, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. There were no reports of deaths elsewhere.

Footage broadcast on state television CCTV showed rescuers performing CPR on an injured person and soldiers erecting temporary shelters.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who fled to India along with thousands of Tibetans in early 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, said he was deeply saddened.

"I offer my prayers for those who have lost their lives and extend my wishes for a swift recovery to all who have been injured," the Nobel peace laureate said in a message.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said all-out search and rescue efforts should be carried out to minimize casualties and to resettle affected people.

Beijing, which administers Tibet as an autonomous region within China, rejects criticism from rights groups and exiles who accuse it of trampling on the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people.

China closed the Everest region to tourists after the quake, Xinhua reported.

Mount Everest is a popular destination for climbers and trekkers but winter is not a prime season for climbers and hikers in Nepal.

A German climber was the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Everest but he had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, tourism department official Lilathar Awasthi said.

More than 1,500 firefighters and rescue workers have been despatched to the affected areas, Xinhua said. Some 22,000 items including tents, coats, quilts and folding beds have also been sent, it said.

Tremors, aftershocks

Villages in Tingri, where the average elevation is around 4,000-5,000 metres, reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed more than 150 aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.

Crumpled 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.

Three townships and 27 villages lie within 20 km of the epicentre, with a total population of around 6,900, and more than 1,000 houses have been damaged, Xinhua reported.

Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

Since 1950, there have been 21 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above in what is know as 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.

A magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Nepal's capital Kathmandu in 2015, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in the country's worst ever earthquake. Among the dead were at least 18 people killed at the Mount Everest base camp when it was hit by an avalanche.

On Tuesday, tremors were felt in Kathmandu, some 400 km from the epicentre, and residents in the city ran out of their houses.

"The bed was shaking and I thought my child was moving the bed...I didn't pay that much attention but the shaking of (a) window made me understand that it's an earthquake," said Kathmandu resident Meera Adhikarii. "I'm still shaking out of fear and am in shock."

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 quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.

(Reporting by Joe Cash and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu, Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai, Tora Agarwala in Guwahati, India and Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar, India; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Neil Fullick, Kate Mayberry, Alex Richardson and Angus MacSwan)