A strong earthquake killed at least 95 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region in western China and across the border with Nepal.
Officials in the region told a brief news conference that another 130 people had been injured, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Video broadcast on CCTV showed emergency workers in orange outfits clambering over piles of debris blocking homes in a badly damaged village, while pieces that had been torn from buildings littered the streets and crushed cars in other areas.
State media reported that around 1,000 houses were damaged and 62 people were injured in addition to the deaths, citing the earthquake relief headquarters in Tibet.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.1 magnitude and was relatively shallow, at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). China recorded a magnitude of 6.8.
The epicenter was about 75 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Mount Everest, which straddles the China-Nepal border. The region is seismically active and is where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide and cause uplifts in the Himalayan mountains strong enough to change the height of some of the world’s highest peaks.
About 50 aftershocks were recorded in the three hours after the quake, and the Mount Everest Scenic Area on the Chinese side was closed after the quake.
About 1,500 firefighters and rescue workers were deployed to search for people, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. Two hundred soldiers took part in the search, CCTV said.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping. called for all-out efforts to rescue populations, minimize the number of casualties and resettle those whose homes were damaged. Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing was sent to guide the work.
CCTV said there were a handful of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, and about 23 kilometers ( 14 miles) from the region’s second largest city. of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.
The average altitude in the area around the epicenter is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), the China Seismic Network Center said in a social media post.
In Nepal, authorities asked authorities in the mountainous area near the epicenter to search for possible casualties or damage.
The National Emergency Operations Center in Kathmandu said residents in northeastern Nepal felt the earthquake hard, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to houses.
A police officer in Solukhumbu district, where Mount Everest is located, said by telephone that no damage had been reported. The area, often crowded with climbers and hikers, was empty in the dead of winter. Many residents move south to avoid the harsh winters.
About 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the epicenter of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, the earthquake woke residents and sent them pouring out of their homes onto the streets.
There have been 10 earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 6 in the area affected by Tuesday’s quake over the past century, the USGS said.
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Associated Press writer Binaj Gurubacharya in Kathmandu, Nepal, and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
NBC Chicago
