AVOIDINGPOSSIBILITY,
In northern India and in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, there were earthquakes, where buildings were shaking.
A powerful earthquake has struck Tibet's second-largest city of Shigatse, according to Chinese and US monitoring groups, with tremors felt hundreds of kilometers away in Nepal.
The earthquake struck at 9:05am local time (01:05 GMT) on Tuesday at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center, which recorded a magnitude of 6.8, while the United States Geological Survey reported. an earthquake of magnitude 7.1.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake is considered powerful and potentially devastating.
Chinese broadcaster CCTV said there were a few areas within 5km (3 miles) of the quake's epicenter, which was about 380km (236 miles) from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.
The Reuters news agency reported that damaged shops could be seen in a video showing the aftermath of the nearby Shigatse town of Lhatse, with debris spilling onto the road.
Very powerful 7.0 #earthquake hits near Shigatse, Tibet, China – info, user reports and updates | Jan 7, 2025 09:05 am (Shanghai time): https://t.co/WRKs73D34j
– Earthquake Monitor (@EQAlerts) January 7, 2025
China's Xinhua news agency said the earthquake caused buildings in Tonglai village, Tibet province, Tingri province in Tibet, to collapse and the victims are being assessed.
Strong tremors were also felt in northern India's Bihar state and in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, some 400 kilometers (248 miles) away, where people were reported fleeing their homes after the tremors.
Areas around Lobuche in the Himalayan region of Nepal near Mount Everest were also shaken by the tremor and aftershocks.
“It shook a lot here, everyone is awake, but we don't know the damage,” said Jagat Prasad Bhusal, a civil servant in Nepal's Namche district, which is close to Everest.
The southwest China is often affected by earthquakes.
According to CCTV, there have been 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher within 200km (124 miles) of the Shigatse epicenter in the past five years, all of which were smaller than the recent one.
A massive earthquake in China's Sichuan province in 2008 killed nearly 70,000 people.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, Nepal's deadliest, struck near Kathmandu, killing nearly 9,000 people and injuring thousands.