Strong 7-magnitude earthquake strikes China’s Tibet region
By Sophie Tanno, CNN
(CNN) — A strong magnitude 7 earthquake struck China’s Tibet at 10.30 p.m. local time on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The epicenter was 183 kilometers East-Northeast of the city of Nagqu in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, USGS data shows.
An unspecified number of fatalities and collapsed houses have been reported from the epicenter, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. A rescue team has been dispatched to the epicenter.
Railway authorities have suspended train services through the affected areas, according to state media CCTV.
The China Earthquake Administration has activated a level II emergency response, its second-highest tier, Chinese broadcaster CGTN said.
In villages near the epicenter, authorities have found at least two injured people and houses with visible cracks, Reuters reported citing a state broadcaster.
Videos released by local media showed people leaving their homes as the quake struck, Reuters reported.
The average elevation within a 5-kilometer radius of the epicenter exceeds 4,800 meters, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
China is no stranger to powerful quakes, especially in southwestern parts of the country where the Eurasian tectonic plate meets the Indian plate, a dramatic collision that creates the mighty Himalayas and the vast Tibetan plateau.
The last comparably-strong earthquake to rock China occurred in January 2024, when a 7.1-magnitude quake hit a mountainous and remote part of China’s far western Xinjiang region, killing three people and injuring scores more.
In December 2023, over one hundred people were killed when an earthquake hit China’s Jishishan county in Gansu province, northwest China, making it the country’s deadliest in nearly a decade.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Michael Rios and Yong Xiong contributed to this report.
