Tibet quake kills 16, injures 76; 12,000 moved to safety

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck northern Tibet on Thursday night has killed at least 16 people and injured 76, Chinese authorities said, as rescuers worked at about 4,800 metres in cold weather.

More than 12,000 residents have been moved to safety, state media Xinhua reported, and at least 339 houses collapsed or were damaged, according to China Central Television. It is the strongest earthquake to hit China since January 2024, Al Jazeera and ABC (Australia) reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 14:33 GMT on Oct. 22, or 10:33 p.m. local time, at a depth of about 10 kilometres. The epicentre was in Maru township, Baqen County, about 190 kilometres east-northeast of Nagqu and 390 kilometres northeast of Lhasa, Dawn reported.

Local authorities said the death toll remained at 16 on Friday. They put the number of injured at 76, up from earlier counts of 46 to 54, with 11 people seriously hurt, according to AFP via the Taipei Times. The China Earthquake Networks Centre has recorded 413 aftershocks, Dawn reported. Officials warned the toll could rise, Al Jazeera reported.

President Xi Jinping ordered an all-out response. He said the quake caused “significant casualties” at a “high-altitude location” in cold weather, and told authorities to “go all-out to carry out search and rescue operations and do their utmost to treat the injured so as to minimise casualties,” according to the Dawn report.

Rescuers and police, with sniffer dogs and equipment, were searching damaged buildings, and more than 300 soldiers were mobilized, CCTV said, according to AFP. CBS News reported that supplies sent to the region include 1,000 prefabricated housing units and about 3,000 tents and folding beds. Many roads were blocked or affected by rockfalls, and snow was forecast, Al Jazeera reported. Many residents were afraid to return home and slept in tents or cars, AFP reported.

The area is sparsely populated, and officials suggested that may have limited the toll so far, Al Jazeera reported. ABC reported the average elevation within five kilometres of the epicentre is about 4,864 metres. The last major quake in Tibet, in January 2025, killed 126 people, according to our earlier reporting.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered condolences to Xi and “every possible assistance,” Dawn reported. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council also expressed condolences and said 164 Taiwanese were registered in Tibet, and that the Straits Exchange Foundation was trying to contact them, AFP reported.

For Canadians, the closest link is the Tibetan community. The 2021 census counted 9,350 Tibetans in Canada, most of them in the Greater Toronto Area, where the Parkdale neighbourhood is known as “Little Tibet,” according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. We did not find a statement from the Canadian government on the quake as of Saturday. Canadians with family in the region may find phone and internet links disrupted, as power and communication lines were reported down.

The toll is likely to change as search teams reach remote areas. Chinese state media is expected to publish updated casualty figures. Figures here are from Chinese authorities and state media, and independent verification from the area is limited. The economic backdrop is covered in our reports on China’s third-quarter growth.

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Via Al Jazeera, CBS News, ABC (Australia), Dawn and AFP.