HONG KONG – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, killing at least 32 people, Chinese state media reported.
The earthquake, which struck shortly after 9 a.m. (8 p.m. ET Monday), was centered at a depth of nearly 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The tremor, which Chinese authorities recorded as having a magnitude of 6.8, struck Dingri county in Shigatse, a mountainous region in western China that borders Nepal. Shigatse, which is about 240 miles from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second most important spiritual figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama.
At least 32 people were killed, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency. Many houses near the epicenter collapsed and some people were still trapped.
About 6,900 people live in more than two dozen villages about 19 kilometers from the epicenter, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Chinese authorities have sent nearly 1,500 firefighters and rescue personnel to the area, the station added. The full extent of the disaster is still being assessed.
The tremors were also felt in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, 400 kilometers away, where residents woke up to the tremors.
No damage was immediately reported there.
Earthquakes are common in the Himalayan region, which straddles a fault between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In the last century, there have been 10 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher within a 150-mile radius of Tuesday’s epicenter, according to the USGS.
In 2008, nearly 70,000 people died in a large earthquake in Sichuan province in southwestern China.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal and damaged nearly a million structures, making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in the country’s history.
