NEW DELHI: At least 95 people were killed and over 100 injured after an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck near the Tibet-Nepal border on Tuesday morning, as reported by China’s state media via AFP.
“A total of 95 people have been confirmed dead and 130 others injured as of 3 pm (0700 GMT) Tuesday,” Xinhua reported.
The quake, which occurred at 6.35 am IST, had its epicentre in Tibet region, about 93 km northeast of Lobuche, Nepal, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
“Over 1,000 houses have sustained varying degrees of damage, ” Xinhua news agency said.
“Dingri county and its surrounding areas experienced very strong tremors, and many buildings near the epicentre have collapsed,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday emphasised “the full-scale search and rescue efforts, minimizing casualties to the greatest extent possible, properly resettling affected residents, and ensuring their safety and warmth through the winter”, CCTV added.
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The earthquake, centred at a depth of 10 kilometres, also caused tremors in Bihar and several parts of North India. Lobuche, located near the Khumbu Glacier in Nepal, lies approximately 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu and is close to the Everest Base Camp.
China’s earthquake monitoring agency recorded the quake’s magnitude as 6.8, with the epicentral region at an altitude of about 4,200 metres (13,800 feet), according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Further, as per NCS data, two more earthquakes struck the region later in the morning.
One of magnitude 4.7 was recorded at 7.02 AM IST, with its epicenter at latitude 28.60 degrees North and longitude 87.68 degrees East, at a depth of 10 kilometers.
Another earthquake of magnitude 4.9 occurred at 7.07 AM IST, with its epicenter at latitude 28.68 degrees North and longitude 87.54 degrees East, at a depth of 30 kilometers.
Nepal, according to experts, is exposed to earthquakes as it is in a seismically active zone, which makes quakes inevitable.
The last time Nepal felt such a strong earthquake was on April 25, 2015, when a 7.8 magnitude quake killed some 9,000 people, the worst in Nepal’s history, and damaged about 1 million structures. The previous deadliest earthquake that struck the region was in 1934 with over 8,000 fatalities.
A day earlier, on Monday, an earthquake of magnitude 4.5 hit Afghanistan at 12.47 pm IST, the National Centre of Seismology (NCS) reported. The quake occurred at a depth of 120 kilometres, with its epicentre recorded at Latitude 36.55 N and Longitude 67.86 E.