A powerful earthquake killed at least 95 people and trapped scores in Tibet on Tuesday, while dozens of aftershocks rattled highlands in western China and across the border in Nepal.
Officials in the region told a brief news conference that 130 others were injured, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Video on CCTV showed rescue workers dressed in orange climbing over piles of debris blocking homes in a heavily damaged village, while in other areas pieces of buildings lay strewn across the streets and crushed cars. Is.
State media, citing the Tibet earthquake relief headquarters, reported that about 1,000 houses were damaged and 130 people were injured in addition to the deaths.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.1 magnitude and was relatively shallow at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 mi). China recorded intensity 6.8.
The earthquake’s epicenter was about 75 kilometers (50 mi) northeast of Mount Everest, which straddles the China-Nepal border. This region is seismically active and is where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide, creating a bulge in the Himalayan mountains strong enough to change the height of some of the world’s highest peaks.
Nearly 50 aftershocks were recorded in the three hours following the earthquake and the Mount Everest scenic area on the Chinese side was closed following the quake.
The Ministry of Emergency Management had deployed about 1,500 fire and rescue personnel to search for people. Two hundred soldiers joined the search, CCTV said.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Called for every possible effort to rescue people, minimize casualties and rehabilitate those whose houses have been damaged. Vice Prime Minister Zhang Guoqing was sent to the area to guide the work.
CCTV said there were a handful of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, and about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from the region’s second-largest city. . Of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.
The China Earthquake Network Center said in a social media post that the average elevation in the area around the epicenter was about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet).
In Nepal, officials asked officials in the mountainous area near the epicenter to look for any casualties or damage.
The National Emergency Operations Center in Kathmandu said people in northeastern Nepal felt a strong tremor, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to homes.
A police officer in Solukhumbu district, where Mount Everest is located, said by telephone that there were no reports of damage. The area, often crowded with climbers and hikers, was empty in the depth of winter. Many residents move south to escape the harsh winter.
In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the epicenter, the quake woke up residents and forced them to run out of their homes into the streets.
The USGS said the area where Tuesday’s quake struck has seen 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the past century.