Shigatse, Tibet, which was the epicentre of the devastating earthquake on Tuesday morning.
Credit: Pixabay
An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 hit Tibet on the morning of Tuesday, January 7 leaving 53 dead and 62 injured.
The tremor hit Shigatse at 9 am local time. Tremors were also felt in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China.
Both Shigatse and the surrounding countryside of Tingri province attract tourists. Shigatse is known as a holy city, being the location of the Tashilhunpo Monastery, home of a key figure of Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama, who is second only to the Dalai Lama. Tingri is often used as the starting place for climbing tours to Mount Everest.
Several aftershocks of around 4.4 magnitude followed the initial earthquake. Chinese experts who rated the earthquake at 6.8 said the likelihood of Tibet receiving another, larger earthquake is very low, although more minor aftershocks of around 5 magnitude are possible.
The Chinese Air Force has been involved in rescue attempts in the area where approximately a thousand houses have been damaged. Power and water have been cut off and temperatures are well below freezing.
Earthquakes are quite common in Tibet as it lies on a major geological fault line of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. In the past century, there have been ten earthquakes of 6 magnitude and above. A quake in 2015 in the capital, Kathmandu, killed almost 9,000 people.
