At least 95 people have been confirmed dead and several others have been injured after a powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit the Tibet autonomous region in China.

This earthquake happened on January 7, 2025, after 9:05 am (1:05 am GMT) after it hit a mountainous area near the Nepal border at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles); however, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said it was 7.1 magnitude.

The earthquake primarily affected the Tingri region, about 240 miles from Tibet’s capital Lhasa and about 14 miles from the region’s second-largest city of Shigatse, also known as Xigaze, leaving numerous buildings collapsed, several injured, and others trapped under the rubble.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), the aftershocks shook the region of western China, northern India, and the neighboring state of Nepal, leaving 130 people severely injured and several others trapped in the rubble.

CENC added that the affected areas are remote villages in mountainous areas that are difficult to access and that difficulties in rescue efforts will increase because it is a cold winter season and the affected villages are not very close to any major city.

’’The death toll might increase because the affected areas are far away from the major city; however, about 1,500 fire and rescue workers have been deployed to search for people in the rubble, by China’s Ministry of Emergency Management,’’ a CENC disclosed.

Disaster relief aid, including cotton tents, quilts, and items for high-altitude and frigid areas, had been dispatched by central authorities to areas impacted by the quake.

Jagat Prasad Bhusal, a government official in Nepal’s Namche region, revealed that areas around Lobuche in Nepal’s Himalayan region near Mount Everest were also rattled by the tremors and aftershocks; however, no damages and casualties have been reported so far.

Bhusal added that powerful tremors were also felt in northern India’s Bihar state and Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, some 400 km (248 miles) away, where residents reportedly ran from their houses as buildings shook.

’’Police and other security forces have been mobilized to collect information on the impact of the quake in various areas in Nepal,’’ Bhusal said.

This morning’s quake was the most powerful recorded within a 200 km radius in the last five years; however, there have been 29 earthquakes with magnitudes of 3 or higher within 200 km (124 miles) of the Shigatse quake epicenter in the past five years, all of which were smaller than the most recent.

A quake in December 2023 in northwest China killed 148 people and displaced thousands in Gansu province.

That quake was China’s deadliest since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.