A devastating earthquake rocked a remote region of Tibet near Mt Everest on Tuesday, killing at least 95 people and collapsing “many buildings.”
Reports indicate tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and parts of India.
AP reports surveillance images showed people running through a store’s aisles as shelves shook violently, sending objects like toys tumbling to the ground.
“A total of 95 people have been confirmed dead and 130 others injured as of 3 pm (0700 GMT),” China’s state Xinhua news agency said.
More than a thousand houses have been damaged, Xinhua reported earlier.
A large-scale rescue operation is now underway with survivors under additional pressure as temperatures were predicted to fall as low as -16C (3.2F) overnight, BBC reports.
Earthquakes are common in the region, which lies on a major geological fault line, but Tuesday’s was one of the deadliest in recent years.
The powerful quake struck Tingri county with a magnitude of 6.8 near the border with Nepal at 9:05 am, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.
As well as Kathmandu, areas around Lobuche in Nepal in the high mountains near Everest were also rattled by the tremor and aftershocks.
“It shook quite strongly here, everyone is awake,” said government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in Nepal’s Namche region, which lies nearer to Everest.
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