Sixteen killed in magnitude-7 quake near Nagqu, Tibet

At least 16 people died and 54 were injured when a magnitude-7 earthquake struck northern Tibet on Thursday night. The tremor occurred at 10.33 pm local time, according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter was located 119 miles east-north-east of the city of Nagqu, at a depth of 11 miles.

The Nagqu media office reported that 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed. Search and rescue operations remained active on Friday. CCTV described the event as the strongest earthquake in the region in five years. The US Geological Survey logged seven aftershocks ranging from magnitude 4.3 to 5.2. Each of these secondary shocks occurred at a depth of six miles.

Rescue teams deployed to the high-altitude, sparsely populated area included more than 1,600 personnel from the local county. Xinhua reported that over 300 police officers joined the relief efforts. Regional fire and rescue services sent almost 350 additional workers. Aid shipments reached the zone, bringing 1,000 prefabricated housing units, 3,000 tents, folding beds, torches, and winter clothing.

Infrastructure damage complicated the response. Communications remained down in parts of the affected area. Local railway authorities halted trains passing through the region as a precaution. Rockfalls closed a section of national highway 317. The road was open only to emergency and official support vehicles while crews cleared debris. Intermittent snow was forecast for the following three days.

President Xi Jinping called for an all-out effort in the rescue and medical relief work. Nagqu is situated more than 185 miles north of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Earthquakes are common in China, where a quake in Gansu province in December 2023 killed at least 134 people. That event marked the country's deadliest seismic disaster since 2014, when more than 600 people died in Yunnan province.

Tibet is a seismically active region that came under Chinese control in the 1950s. The area has a predominantly ethnic Tibetan population and is one of China's poorest regions. In August, a major flood hit the border between Tibet and Nepal. International media were kept from visiting the affected areas on the Tibetan side, which limited visibility into the scale of that damage.

Footage from CCTV showed workers running out of restaurants and goods falling from supermarket shelves during the initial shaking. Rescuers were seen climbing through buildings with collapsed roofs. The region's high altitude and cold temperatures add to the challenges facing the recovery teams.