A powerful magnitude 7 earthquake has rattled the remote, mountainous terrain of Baqên County in Tibet’s northern Nagqu region, triggering widespread destruction that has claimed at least 16 lives and left dozens injured, according to official Chinese state media reports.
Citing data from the local emergency management bureau, state-run news agency Xinhua confirmed the seismic event struck just after nightfall on Thursday, with its epicenter located roughly 400 kilometers northeast of Lhasa, Tibet’s regional capital. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, regional and national authorities swiftly activated a level-one emergency response and deployed specialized search-and-rescue teams to the hard-hit area, where 32 people have been confirmed with injuries ranging from minor to critical.
Local official updates paint a grim picture of the damage: more than 300 residential structures have completely collapsed across the affected county, and widespread damage to grid infrastructure has left most of the region without electrical power. Compounding the challenges for first responders, triggered rockfalls along mountain highways have forced the closure of key access routes, slowing the arrival of emergency supplies and rescue personnel to cut-off communities.
This earthquake comes less than two months after a separate catastrophic disaster in the Himalayan region, when a massive glacial lake collapse unleashed devastating flash floods and landslides across southern Tibet and neighboring Nepal. That disaster killed more than 1,400 people, with hundreds of residents still unaccounted for months later, underscoring the high natural disaster risk facing Tibet’s geologically active mountain ecosystems.