BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 400 people trapped in a powerful earthquake in the foothills of the Himalayas have been rescued, Chinese officials said, while more than 30,000 residents were relocated as the search for survivors entered a second day on Wednesday.
The epicenter of Tuesday’s magnitude 6.8 quake, one of the region’s strongest in recent years, was in Tingri in China’s Tibet region, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. It also shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Twenty-four hours after the earthquake, survivors trapped under the rubble will endure a night in sub-zero temperatures and be at risk of hypothermia and dehydration.
An initial survey showed 3,609 homes had been destroyed in Tibet’s Shigatse region, home to 800,000 people, Chinese state media reported late Tuesday, citing local officials. More than 500 people and 106 ambulances were sent to help the injured.
At least 126 people were killed and 188 injured on the Tibetan side, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. No deaths have been reported in Nepal or elsewhere.
Temperatures in the highlands fell to minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, further adding to the misery of those left homeless.
Tents, food rations, electrical generators and other supplies arrived at the site late Tuesday, and all sections of the road damaged by the earthquake were reopened, CCTV added.
The southwestern parts of China, Nepal, and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which push down the ancient sea that is now the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
The entire plateau is seismically active, as well as its eastern and northern edges, which overlap with the Chinese provinces and regions of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.
Beijing, which governs Tibet as an autonomous region within China, rejects criticism from human rights groups and exiles who accuse it of trampling on the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people.
More than 500 aftershocks of magnitude up to 4.4 have followed the quake since 8 am (0000 GMT) on Wednesday, the China Earthquake Network Center said.
Over the past five years, there have been 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater within 200 km of the epicenter of Tuesday’s quake, according to the earthquake bureau of Sichuan province.
In 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Chengdu, Sichuan, killing at least 70,000 people, the deadliest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed at least 242,000 people.
Tuesday’s quake was the worst since a 6.2-magnitude temblor in 2023 that killed at least 149 people in the country’s remote northwestern region.
