Strong Earthquake Hits Remote Tibet in Western China, Killing 32

Dozens of people were killed after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the region of Tibet in western China near the border with Nepal on Tuesday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The quake struck shortly after 9 a.m. at a depth of 6.2 miles in Dingri County in Tibet, Chinese state media reported. The state-run news agency Xinhua said at least 32 people had died.

The Nanfang Daily, a state-run newspaper, reported that more than 1,000 houses had collapsed in Dingri County.

Several aftershocks were felt in the area, including in Nepal.

The nearest city to the earthquake’s epicenter was Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet, with a population of 640,000.

The Himalayan region is prone to powerful earthquakes. In 2015, a quake in Nepal with a magnitude of 7.8 killed nearly 9,000 people. In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, residents streamed out of their homes in the morning as the earthquake rattled buildings.

“Based on the magnitude of the earthquake, there could be some damages in mountains of eastern Nepal,” said Lok Bijaya Adhikari, a senior seismologist at Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center.

Most residents from Nepal’s high mountain regions such as Everest, Makalu, Rolwaling and Kanchenjunga have migrated to lowland areas to avoid the extreme cold of winter.

“Although most people migrate to lower land during winter season, some are still there,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, the former chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. “There’s always risk of avalanche and glacial lake outburst floods after earthquakes.”