President Xi Jinping has ordered all out rescue efforts after at least 95 people were killed and another 130 injured when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Tibet Autonomous Region in western China on Tuesday.

The epicentre was about 75 kilometres northeast of Mount Everest, which straddles the border with Nepal.

Xi also urged efforts to prevent secondary disasters, properly resettle affected residents, and handle the aftermath work effectively.

"It is essential to strengthen earthquake monitoring and early warning, promptly allocate emergency rescue supplies, expedite the repair of damaged infrastructure, ensure the basic needs of residents are met, and guarantee a safe and warm winter for all," Xi said in a statement.

The area is seismically active and is where the India and Eurasia plates clash and cause uplifts in the Himalayan mountains strong enough to change the heights of some of the world’s tallest peaks.

The average altitude in the area around the epicentre is about 4,200 metres, the China Earthquake Networks Center said in a social media post.

State broadcaster CCTV said there are a handful of communities within five kilometres of the epicentre, which was 380 kilometres from Lhasa, the provincial capital, and about 23 kilometres from the region's second-largest city of Shigatse, also known as Xigaze in Chinese.

About 230 kilometres away in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake woke up residents and sent them running out of their homes into the streets. No information was immediately available from the remote, mountainous areas of Nepal closer to the epicentre.

There were also reports of tremors in the northern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.

Officials said the quake damaged or destroyed buildings in the autonomous region.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Centre, the quake occurred at 9.05am local time in Xigaze, at a depth of 10 kilometres.

It revised the strength of the tremor from its earlier reading of 6.9.

The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.

By 10am, multiple aftershocks had been recorded, with the largest one measuring 4.4 in magnitude, according to state media.

Videos went viral on Chinese social media platforms, showing crumbled houses amid the aftermath from the nearby town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.

The State Council Earthquake Relief Headquarters Office and the Ministry of Emergency Management have launched a level 3 emergency response to the quake, while the local government dispatched over 1,500 people to conduct search and rescue work in the affected areas.

A magnitude 6.8 quake is considered strong and is capable of causing severe damage.

South-western parts of China, Nepal and northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

In 2008, a huge quake in Sichuan province killed almost 70,000 people, while a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in 2015 leaving about 9,000 people dead in Nepal's worst ever earthquake. (Reporting by Xinhua, Reuters and Associated Press)
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Last updated: 2025-01-07 HKT 14:10