Rescue teams in Tibet are racing against falling temperatures after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck late on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people and injuring dozens more. With the mercury at minus 9 degrees Celsius and snow forecast, officials say the first hours of the search are critical for anyone trapped under collapsed homes.
The quake hit at 10:33pm local time, with its epicentre in the remote Maru township of Baqen county, about 190 kilometres east-northeast of Nagqu, according to the US Geological Survey. It was shallow, which amplified the shaking at the surface. State media reported that 339 homes collapsed and more than 12,489 people were evacuated to emergency shelters. The injured numbered 46 according to state television, 11 of them seriously, while other outlets put the figure at 54.
A massive mobilisation
President Xi Jinping ordered an all-out rescue effort, and the response has been swift. More than 300 police officers and 347 firefighters and rescue personnel were dispatched to the disaster zone, along with 1,000 prefabricated housing units, 3,000 tents and emergency supplies. The authorities activated a level-III emergency response, the second-highest tier. Seven aftershocks between magnitude 4.3 and 5.2 have rattled the region, complicating the work of crews digging through rubble in the dark.
The cold is the great enemy now. In high-altitude Tibet, winter nights are brutal, and officials have warned that exposure is as dangerous as the quake itself for survivors pulled from the wreckage. Power and telecommunications in the worst-hit areas were disrupted, making it harder to coordinate the search. Local officials said rescue corridors were being kept open through the night.
A region that knows earthquakes
Tibet sits on one of the most seismically active zones on Earth, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. In January last year, a magnitude 6.8 quake near Tingri killed 126 people, a reminder of how destructive shallow quakes can be in this terrain. The regional security picture adds another layer of complexity to relief logistics in the wider area. The story is developing, and live updates are tracking the rescue operation as dawn breaks over the plateau. Our earlier world coverage has more on the week’s major international developments.
