Tibet earthquake: At least 95 people reported killed when powerful earthquake strikes near holy city of Shigatse – Live updates | Tibet

State media: At least 95 people were killed by the earthquake

Chinese state media reported earlier that at least 53 people were killed and 62 others injured after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning. The death toll, announced by Chinese state media, has now risen to 95 people, and 130 people are reported to have been injured. “95 people have been confirmed dead and 130 others injured as of 3 p.m. (0700 GMT),” China's official Xinhua News Agency said. The quake shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India, but all deaths were reported on the Tibetan side.

Share

Updated at 03.42 EST

Main events

Show only major events

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

We reported in a previous post (see 07.35) that the Chinese Air Force launched rescue efforts and drones to the quake-affected area.

There are now reports that Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has been sent to the region to direct the work.

Meanwhile, the government announced the allocation of 100 million yuan ($13.6 million; £10.8 million) for disaster relief.

This morning, the earthquake struck Dingri County in China's Tibet region, and several aftershocks were later felt in the region, including Nepal. The epicenter of the earthquake was recorded in Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet.

ShareThe Dalai Lama is “deeply saddened” by the deaths resulting from the Tibet earthquake

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said he was “deeply saddened” and was praying for the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck China's remote Himalayan region.

The exiled leader, who fled to India in March 1959 when Chinese forces crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet, said in a statement on Tuesday:

I am deeply saddened to learn of the devastating earthquake…it has caused a tragic loss of life, many injuries, and widespread destruction of homes and property.

I pray for those who lost their lives and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured.

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, and has lived in exile in India since 1959, when China annexed Tibet. The 89-year-old stepped down as his people's political leader in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government democratically chosen by some 130,000 Tibetans worldwide.

The Dalai Lama offers blessings to his followers at his Himalayan residence in the northern hill town of Dharamshala, India, on December 20, 2024. Photograph: Priyanshu Singh/Reuters

Tenzin Likchai, a spokesman for that government, said they were “deeply saddened by the loss of life and widespread destruction of property” caused by the quake.

He added: “Our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.”

Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama is the fourteenth incarnation of the leader of a six-century-old institution, chosen by monks in accordance with ancient Buddhist traditions.

Share

The Xinhua News Agency reported that as of 11:40 a.m. local time, more than 1,500 local firefighters and rescue workers had been sent to the areas affected by the earthquake.

She added that 22,000 items including cotton tents, cotton coats, quilts and folding beds were also sent to the region. The impact of the earthquake, which struck the holy city of Shigatze in Tibet around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT), was felt throughout the Shigatze region of Tibet, which is inhabited by 800,000 people.

State media said the initial quake — whose epicenter was in the Tengri region, about 240 miles from Tibet's capital Lhasa — was followed by a number of aftershocks measuring 4.4 magnitude.

Share50 aftershocks recorded in the hours following the earthquake

The epicenter of the quake was about 75 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Mount Everest, which straddles the border between China and Nepal. The region is seismically active and is where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide and cause Himalayan uplifts powerful enough to change the heights of some of the world's highest peaks.

About 50 aftershocks were recorded in the three hours after the quake, and the scenic Mount Everest region on the Chinese side was closed after the quake, according to the Associated Press.

Share

Updated at 04.30 EST

Residents in Tingri County, close to the epicenter, said the quake caused a lot of damage, partly due to the fragile design of homes there. The earthquake destroyed more than 1,000 homes.

Sanji Dangzhi, 34, whose supermarket in Tingri County was severely damaged, described the situation as “very serious” with ambulances taking people to hospital all day.

Dangzhi, who returned home from Shigatse after the quake, told AFP: “The houses here are made of dirt, and when the earthquake happened… many houses collapsed.”

The central authorities sent disaster relief aid, including cotton tents, quilts and materials for high-altitude and cold areas, to the quake-hit areas.

State media: At least 95 people were killed in the earthquake

Chinese state media reported earlier that at least 53 people were killed and 62 others injured after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning. The death toll, announced by Chinese state media, has now risen to 95 people, and 130 people are reported to have been injured. “95 people have been confirmed dead and 130 others injured as of 3 p.m. (0700 GMT),” China's official Xinhua News Agency said. The quake shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India, but all deaths were reported on the Tibetan side.

Share

Updated at 03.42 EST

Here are more photos sent to us via news agencies from Tibet:

This photo shows damaged homes after an earthquake in a village in Shigatse. Photograph: Xinhua/Reuters Rocks on a road near the Shigatze National Highway in Tibet after an earthquake struck the area. Photograph: UGC/AFP/Getty Images Cracks on the walls of a restaurant in Tibet's Lhats province following the deadly earthquake. Photograph: UGC/AFP/Getty ImagesShare More than 1,000 homes were damaged when the earthquake hit Tibet

Three towns and 27 villages are located 20 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake, which was centered on the remote Tibetan plateau near the Himalayan border with Nepal, about 50 miles north of Mount Everest.

Chinese state media reported that the total population of these affected areas is about 6,900 people. More than 1,000 homes were reportedly damaged.

As mentioned earlier, the epicenter of the 7.1-magnitude quake was in Tengri, a rural Chinese province known as the northern gateway to the Everest region.

Temperatures in the province are around -8 C (17.6 F) and forecasters estimate it will drop to -18 this evening. The Chinese Air Force launched rescue efforts and drones to the affected area amid sub-zero temperature conditions.

Share

The epicenter of the earthquake on Tuesday was about 80 kilometers north of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world and a popular destination for mountaineers and hikers.

Winter is not a popular season for mountaineers and trekkers in Nepal, with a German climber being the only climber with a permit to climb Mount Everest, Reuters reported. Lilatar Awasthi, a tourism ministry official, said he had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit.

Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremor was felt by residents of seven mountainous areas bordering Tibet.

“So far, we have not received any information about any loss of life or property,” Dizan Bhattarai, spokesman for the authority, told Reuters. He added: “We have mobilized the police, security forces and local authorities to collect information.”

Mount Everest. Photography: David Cheskin/Pennsylvania

Many villages in the sparsely populated Nepalese border region are remote and can only be reached on foot.

Share

The Associated Press has put together a short timeline of the worst earthquakes to hit China in recent years, including the 2008 Sichuan quake that killed nearly 90,000 people.

He points out that earthquakes in China most often occur on the Tibetan Plateau or its outskirts. The seismically active zone is where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide and cause uplifts that can be strong enough to change the heights of the Himalayan peaks. Here is the schedule:

– May 2008: A 7.9-magnitude earthquake leaves nearly 90,000 people dead, missing and presumed dead in Sichuan Province.

– April 2010: A 7.1-magnitude earthquake kills 2,698 people in Qinghai Province.

– April 2013: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake kills 196 people in Sichuan.

– July 2013: A 6.6-magnitude earthquake kills 95 people in Gansu Province.

– August 2014: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills 617 people in Yunnan Province.

– September 2022: A 6.8-magnitude earthquake kills 93 people in Sichuan.

– December 2023: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake kills at least 126 people in Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Share

Some other images have been received from the Lats district of Shigatse, the Tibetan city most affected by the earthquake:

Photo: UGC/AFP/Getty Images Photo: UGC/AFP/Getty Images Photo: UGC/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out” rescue efforts to save lives and minimize losses, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The president also urged “efforts to prevent secondary disasters, properly resettle affected populations, and effectively deal with the effects of the disaster,” it said.

Share

In addition to Kathmandu, areas around Lobuchi in Nepal in the high mountains near Everest were also hit by the earthquake and aftershocks, AFP reported.

“We were shaken hard here, and everyone is awake,” said government official Jagat Prasad Bhosal in Nepal's Namchi district, which is located near Mount Everest.

Rishi Ram Tiwari, spokesman for the Nepali Home Minister, said no damage or deaths had been reported so far and security forces had been deployed.

Nepal lies on a major geological fault where the Indian tectonic plates push up into the Eurasian plate to form the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a frequent occurrence.

In 2015, nearly 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.

Share

Updated 01.07 EST

Pictures are starting to trickle in from areas affected by the quake, though they are still few and far between. Here's a couple from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, where tremors sent people into the streets:

Photograph: Sunil Sharma/AFP/Getty Images Image: Sunil Sharma/AFP/Getty Images Share At least 53 dead after powerful earthquake

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Tibet earthquake.

The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said the quake struck near one of Tibet's holiest cities, killing at least 53 people and collapsing “several buildings” and was felt in neighboring Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, and parts of India.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Dingri County near the border with Nepal on Tuesday morning, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The US Geological Survey reported that the earthquake's magnitude reached 7.1.

“Fifty-three people were confirmed dead and 62 others injured as of Tuesday noon, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Dingri County in Shigatze City in Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region at 9:05 a.m. Tuesday,” the official said. Xinhua News Agency said.

Videos released by China Central Broadcasting Corporation (CCTV) showed destroyed homes, torn walls and rubble strewn across the rubble in the aftermath of the quake.

The China Meteorological Administration reported that temperatures in Dingri are around minus 8 degrees Celsius and will drop to minus 18 degrees this evening.

This highland province in the Tibet region is home to about 62,000 people and is located on the Chinese side of Mount Everest.

The center added that although earthquakes are common in the region, Tuesday's earthquake was the strongest earthquake recorded in a radius of 200 kilometers during the past five years.

Stay with us as we cover developments.

Share

Updated at 01.58 EST

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos