A strong earthquake struck the foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities yesterday, killing at least 126 people and flattening hundreds of houses, Chinese authorities said.
The magnitude 6.8 quake's epicentre was about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Tremors also shook buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh.
The impact was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people. The region is administered from Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
Many homes in Shigatse city were reduced to rubble, video released by Tibet Fire and Rescue showed. Rescue workers searched through the debris of a ruined home and pulled out one injured person, it showed.
Adding to the misery for those left homeless, temperatures in the region had fallen to minus 6 degrees Celsius late yesterday, and were forecast to drop as low as minus 16 C (3 F) overnight.
The China Earthquake Networks Centre located the epicentre at Tingri county, known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km. The US Geological Service put the quake's magnitude at 7.1. It struck at 9:05am.
At least 126 people were known to have been killed and 188 injured on the Tibetan side, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. There were no reports of deaths elsewhere.
More than 1,500 firefighters and rescue workers have been despatched to the affected areas, Xinhua said. Some 22,000 items including tents, coats, quilts and folding beds have also been sent, it said.
Footage broadcast on state television CCTV showed rescuers performing CPR on an injured person and soldiers erecting temporary shelters.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who fled to India along with thousands of Tibetans in early 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, said he was deeply saddened.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said all-out search and rescue efforts should be carried out to minimise casualties and to resettle affected people.
Villages in Tingri, where the average elevation is around 4,000-5,000 metres, reported strong shaking during the quake, which was followed more than 150 aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4.
Crumpled shop fronts could be seen in a video on social media showing the aftermath in the town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
Three townships and 27 villages lie within 20 km (12 miles) of the epicentre, with a total population of around 6,900, and more than 1,000 houses have been damaged, Xinhua reported.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Since 1950, there have been 21 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above in what is known as the Lhasa block, the largest of which was the 6.9-magnitude quake in Mainling in 2017, according to CCTV.