Magnitude-7 earthquake hits China's Tibet region, killing 16 people

A magnitude-7 earthquake has struck China's south-western region of Tibet, killing 16 people and injuring 32 others, state news agency Xinhua has reported.

Citing Nagqu City's emergency management bureau, Xinhua reported the earthquake struck about 10:33pm Thursday, local time.

As of 2:25am on Friday, 11 of the injured were in serious condition while 21 sustained minor injuries, Xinhua reported.

At least 339 homes collapsed, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials.

The quake is the strongest to hit China since January 2024.

The epicentre was in a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres.

The average elevation within 5km of the epicentre is about 4,864 metres, China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) data showed.

Videos released by local officially run media showed people leaving their homes and seeking shelter outside or in their cars parked on the street.

One resident reported being woken by the strong quake and hearing the house squeaking in the tremor.

The quake was clearly felt in the local area, CENC said. The epicentre was about 400km from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

As search and rescue efforts continued, police and emergency crews were building tents to house people displaced by the quake.

CENC data showed that a string of smaller tremors of about magnitude 3 and 4 were recorded in surrounding regions afterwards.

Earthquakes in China are relatively common.

In January 2025, at least 126 people were killed in an earthquake in Tibet's rural Tingri county.

In 2010, a magnitude-7.1 tremor struck Yushu, in the Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 people missing.