Magnitude 7 earthquake in Tibet kills at least 16

A magnitude 7 earthquake struck China’s Tibet region late on Thursday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 32, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the emergency management bureau of Nagqu city, Geo News reported.

As of 2:25am on Friday, 11 of the injured were in serious condition and 21 had minor injuries, Xinhua said.

The quake was the strongest to hit China since January 2024, Geo News reported.

How the toll rose

The first reports were limited. Shortly after the quake, state broadcaster CCTV said local authorities had found at least two people injured in a village near the epicentre, The Express Tribune reported. Xinhua then reported casualties and collapsed houses, Geo News said, before the Nagqu emergency management bureau gave a toll of at least 16 dead and 32 injured early on Friday.

Where it struck

The quake struck at 10:33pm local time (1433 GMT, or 7:33pm in Pakistan) in a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). The average elevation within 5km of the epicentre is about 4,864 metres (15,960 feet), CENC data showed.

The US Geological Survey placed the epicentre in a mountainous area about 190km east-northeast of Nagqu and about 390km northeast of the regional capital, Lhasa.

Xinhua said the epicentre was in Maru township in Baqen county. The township’s deputy head, Lhawang Dagpo, said the quake was clearly felt at the township office, whose walls cracked.

Collapsed houses, power cut

• Homes: Houses collapsed in the area, and some houses in the villages closest to the epicentre showed cracks, state media reported.
• Services: Power and telecommunications were disrupted in the county seat, Xinhua said.
• Aftershocks: A series of smaller tremors of around magnitude 3 and 4 were recorded in surrounding areas, CENC data showed.

Videos released by state-run media showed people leaving their homes and sheltering outside or in cars parked on the street, The Express Tribune reported. One resident said he was woken by the quake and heard the house creaking.

Rescue under way

The quake was clearly felt across the local area, CENC said, and the township office in Maru was among the buildings damaged.

A level-II earthquake disaster emergency response was activated in the area, Xinhua said. Local fire and rescue teams were mobilised and heading to the affected region, and officials were checking nearby villages. Workers have also been sent to the area to coordinate the response, the agency said, while state media footage showed residents near the epicentre sheltering outdoors or in their parked cars.

A region prone to quakes

Tibet and its neighbouring provinces have suffered deadly quakes before. Earlier disasters in the region include:

• January 2025: at least 126 people were killed in an earthquake in Tibet’s rural Tingri county.
• 2010: a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Yushu in neighbouring Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 missing.

Pakistan this month marked the 21st anniversary of the October 8, 2005 earthquake, a magnitude 7.6 quake that killed more than 86,000 people.