A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck a remote, mountainous stretch of northern Tibet on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people, injuring dozens more, and flattening hundreds of residences, according to Chinese state media and local officials.
The tremor occurred at 10:33 p.m. local time in Baqên County within the Nagqu region, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the city’s emergency management bureau. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was located roughly 119 miles east-northeast of Nagqu and approximately 240 miles northeast of the regional capital, Lhasa, at a depth of about 11 miles. China’s Earthquake Networks Center measured the depth at roughly six miles.
Rescue teams deploy to high-altitude villages
Officials activated a level-II emergency disaster response as emergency personnel navigated high-altitude terrain to reach damaged settlements. Strong tremors shook communities across the region and were felt in the cities of Qamdo and Nyingchi, BBC News reported.
The Nagqu media office reported that at least 339 homes and 20 livestock shelters collapsed during the shaking, CBS News reported. Rockfalls blocked roads, complicating efforts by emergency workers to access remote communities, while power cuts affected parts of the disaster zone, according to BBC News. State media footage showed residents fleeing shaking structures into the dark to take refuge on streets and inside parked vehicles.
Reports varied slightly on the number of nonfatal casualties. Xinhua reported that 32 people suffered injuries, with 11 in serious condition and 21 sustaining minor injuries, according to Al Jazeera. A later update from the Nagqu media office cited by CBS News placed the injury toll at 46, including 11 individuals critically hurt and 35 with minor injuries.
Emergency aid dispatched to freezing plateau
More than 1,600 rescue personnel were deployed to the disaster zone, CBS News reported. Authorities sent emergency relief supplies to the high-elevation area, including 1,000 prefabricated housing units, approximately 3,000 tents, folding beds, flashlights, and winter apparel.
The earthquake marked the strongest seismic event to strike China since January 2024 and the largest in this specific area in five years, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The USGS stated that the quake resulted from normal faulting within the Tibetan Plateau, an active tectonic environment shaped by the ongoing collision between the Indian and Eurasian continental plates.
Seismic activity is common across the plateau, where 29 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher have occurred since 1900, the USGS noted. The disaster also follows catastrophic flash flooding less than two months ago along the Tibet-Nepal border, where a glacier collapse triggered floods that left hundreds dead.
Search and rescue operations remain underway as crews assess structural stability across scattered villages, and officials have not yet determined the full extent of property losses across the rugged territory.
