Using their hands and shovels in frigid conditions, rescue workers dug through the rubble in the search for survivors after a deadly 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted people awake in a remote part of Tibet on Tuesday near the northern foothills of Mount Everest.
At least 95 people had died and 130 were injured in the quake, which struck shortly after 9 a.m. at a depth of 6.2 miles in Dingri County, near one of Tibet’s holiest cities, in western China, state media reported. The quake in western China was the country’s deadliest since December 2023, when 151 people were killed in a 6.2-magnitude temblor in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.
China’s state broadcaster reported that more than 1,000 houses had collapsed in Dingri County, located along the Himalayan border with Nepal. Scenes of destruction were broadcast on state media and shared on social media.
Frantic rescue efforts were being conducted without heavy equipment, underscoring the challenge in delivering resources to the largely isolated communities damaged by the quake. With temperatures in the region dipping as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius), rescue workers have a short window in which to locate survivors. It was unclear how many residents had been left homeless by the quake.
Several aftershocks were felt in the area, including in Nepal. The quake had a magnitude of 7.1, according to the United States Geological Survey, though it was measured as 6.8 by the China Earthquake Networks Center.