Strong earthquake kills scores of people in western China

BEIJING — A robust earthquake killed at the very least 53 individuals in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the area of western China and throughout the border in Nepal.

The official Xinhua Information Company stated 62 different individuals have been injured, citing the regional catastrophe reduction headquarters.

About 1,500 hearth and rescue employees have been deployed to seek for individuals within the rubble, the Ministry of Emergency Administration stated.

The U.S. Geological Survey stated the earthquake measured magnitude 7.1 and was comparatively shallow at a depth of about six miles. China recorded the magnitude as 6.8.

The epicenter was about 50 miles northeast of Mt. Everest, which straddles the border. The realm is seismically lively and is the place the India and Eurasia plates conflict and trigger uplifts within the Himalayan mountains robust sufficient to alter the heights of among the world’s tallest peaks.

The common altitude within the space across the epicenter is about 13,800 ft, the China Earthquake Networks Middle stated in a social media put up.

State broadcaster CCTV stated there are a handful of communities inside three miles of the epicenter, which was 240 miles from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and about 14 miles from the area’s second-largest metropolis of Shigatse, referred to as Xigaze in Chinese language.

About 140 miles away in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake wakened residents and despatched them working out of their houses into the streets. No info was instantly out there from the distant, mountainous areas of Nepal nearer to the epicenter.

There have been 10 earthquakes of at the very least magnitude 6 within the space the place Tuesday’s quake hit over the previous century, the USGS stated.

Related Press author Binaj Gurubacharya in Kathmandu, Nepal, and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.