7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Tibet: 16 Dead, 32 Injured

A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Tibet on Thursday, killing 16 people and injuring 32 others, according to the city’s emergency management bureau.

As of 2:25 a.m. on Friday, 11 of the injured were in serious condition while 21 had sustained minor injuries. More than 300 houses collapsed in the affected areas. Authorities said the full extent of the damage is still being assessed and relief operations are underway.

Over 300 police officers have been sent to the epicentre, while the regional fire and rescue corps has mobilised 347 personnel for rescue and relief work.

India’s National Centre for Seismology (NCS) reported that the quake occurred at a depth of 173 kilometres, with its epicentre approximately 400 kilometres from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

The latest tremor follows earlier seismic activity in the region. A magnitude 5.0 quake had struck Tibet on September 3 at a depth of about 14 kilometres. In January 2025, a stronger 6.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 120 people and injured hundreds.

Experts have cautioned that rising temperatures, retreating glaciers and increasingly extreme weather events could raise the risk of natural disasters across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The latest quake has once again drawn attention to the region’s vulnerability as communities continue to recover from recent calamities.

The earthquake comes weeks after a devastating ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26 that triggered catastrophic flash floods. Those floods swept away homes, roads and bridges, damaged hydropower projects and left thousands missing, killing over 1,400 people in the border region.