Earthquake kills at least 125 in Tibet near China’s border with Nepal

An earthquake killed at least 125 people and left 188 injured after it struck a remote area of southern Tibet near China’s border with Nepal at dawn on Tuesday, Chinese state media reported.

Liu Huazhong, deputy mayor of Shigatse, broke into tears during a news conference Tuesday afternoon while announcing the human toll and the damage.

The quake struck Tingri county, home to 60,000 people, at 9:05 a.m. Beijing time, state broadcaster CCTV said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at 7.1 magnitude, while Chinese authorities classified it as 6.8-magnitude.

The tremor brought down more than 3,600 homes, according to the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. The broader Shigatse, at the epicenter of the quake, is the second-largest city in Tibet and the holy seat of the second-most-important religious leader in Tibetan Buddhism, the state-appointed Panchen Lama.

The China Earthquake Networks Center has recorded multiple aftershocks and expects more in coming days. Tibet sits on the seismically active Himalayan region and is prone to earthquakes because of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for an all-out search-and-rescue effort to minimize casualties. “We must … repair damaged infrastructure as soon as possible, arrange basic living arrangements for the people, and ensure people are safe and warm through the winter,” CCTV reported him as saying.

Some 12,000 emergency responders were dispatched to search the rubble for signs of life and evacuate survivors. By Tuesday night, 407 trapped people had been found and rescued, People’s Daily reported.

Sitting high on the Tibetan plateau at an elevation of 14,100 feet and 236 miles from the regional capital of Lhasa, Tingri is a major stop on the way to the North Base Camp, where adventurers set out climbing Mount Everest from the north face. The region can be bitterly cold in January, with temperatures often plunging as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-15 degrees Celsius).

Local tourism officials on Tuesday closed the North Base Camp until further notice.

Power and internet remained off in parts of Shigatse on Tuesday afternoon, CCTV reported.

A Tingri resident told local media that the shaking at first felt similar to the massive 2008 earthquake in neighboring Sichuan province that killed 70,000. Then the second floor of her house caved in and crushed her car, said a woman identified only by her surname, Wang.

Past earthquakes that hit mountainous Tibetan regions of western China have drawn public concern about badly constructed homes in relatively poor and isolated villages.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives and the extensive destruction of property in Tibet following the recent series of earthquakes. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the grieving families,” Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson for the Tibetan government in exile, said on X.

- - -

GRAPHIC

https://washingtonpost.com/documents/1029d530-9d9d-4492-8b31-92cf304886e6.pdf