BEIJING (Reuters) – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, damaging buildings around Shigatse and sending people into the streets in neighboring Nepal and India.
The 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT) quake had an epicenter depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the China Earthquake Network Center said, revising the magnitude from an earlier 6.9.
Chinese state media reported that there were fatalities after the earthquake, without providing further details.
Shigatse is the seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures of Tibetan Buddhism, whose spiritual authority is second only to the Dalai Lama.
Collapsed shop fronts could be seen in video footage showing the aftermath from the nearby town of Lhatse, with debris strewn across the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layouts and signs that match satellite and street view images.
Local government officials are contacting nearby cities to assess the impact of the quake and check for casualties, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Six villages are within 5 km of the epicenter, China’s state-run CCTV said, without giving further details.
The tremors were felt in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, about 400 km (250 miles) away, where residents fled their homes.
The quake was also felt in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and in the northern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal, where people also rushed from their homes as their walls shook.
So far, there have been no reports of any damage or loss of property, officials in India said.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake is considered strong and can cause serious damage.
“We felt a very strong earthquake. We have not received any report of injuries or physical loss so far,” said Anoj Raj Ghimire, chief district officer of Nepal’s Solukhumbu district, at the foot of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.
“We have mobilized the police and other security forces as well as the local population to gather information about the damage,” he added.
The southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often affected by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
A major earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in 2008 killed nearly 70,000 people, while a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Kathmandu in 2015, killing around 9,000 people and injuring thousands in Nepal’s worst earthquake.
