A powerful earthquake struck the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, killing at least 95 people, injuring 130, and causing tremors across Nepal, Bhutan, and India, according to Chinese authorities.
The quake, recorded at 6.8 magnitude by Chinese monitors and 7.1 by the U.S. Geological Service, hit at 9:05 a.m. (01:05 GMT) with its epicenter in Tingri, a rural county in Tibet known as the northern gateway to the Everest region. It occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), intensifying its destructive impact.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that at least 53 people were killed and 62 injured in Tibet, with significant damage to rural communities. Tremors were felt across the Himalayan region, shaking buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan, and India.
The southwestern Himalayan region is prone to earthquakes due to the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake near Kathmandu, Nepal, killed nearly 9,000 people, including 18 climbers at Mount Everest base camp, making it Nepal’s deadliest quake on record.
* Reuters contributed to this article.
0 Comments