The number of people injured in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck China's Tibet region on Thursday night has risen to 65, the local government said in a social media post on Friday, while the death toll remained unchanged at 16, Reuters reported from Beijing on October 23.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

More than 12,000 people have been safely relocated, the state media outlet Xinhua reported, according to Reuters. The quake, with its epicentre in Nagqu, a sparsely populated, high-altitude city in northern Tibet, is the strongest to hit China since January 2024, Reuters said.

65injured, local government said
16confirmed dead
12,000+people safely relocated
413aftershocks recorded

More than 300 police officers, including traffic and community police, were sent to the epicentre to carry out rescue and emergency relief work, the Nagqu police department said in a separate post on the messaging app WeChat early on Friday, Reuters reported. Officers checked homes for damage and helped people relocate to safer locations.

The Associated Press, citing local authorities, reported that at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, and that more than 1,600 rescue personnel were deployed. Authorities dispatched emergency supplies including 1,000 prefabricated housing units, 3,000 tents, folding beds, flashlights and warm clothing for residents displaced in the cold plateau region.

Source: Associated Press via Tutubi News

The earthquake struck at 10:33 p.m. local time on October 22, with its epicentre about 191 kilometres east-northeast of Nagqu, the United States Geological Survey said, placing its depth at 18 kilometres. Local rail services were suspended and sections of National Highway 317 were closed after rockfalls, with access restricted to emergency and rescue vehicles, and intermittent snowfall forecast over the following days could further complicate rescue work, the AP reporting said.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said 413 aftershocks had been recorded, Reuters reported. The casualty and damage figures are still provisional: rescue teams are still reaching remote high-altitude settlements, communications have been disrupted in parts of the affected area, and officials say the full extent of the damage is still being assessed.

Awaaz Punjab's earlier report carried the first confirmed toll from Baqen County, where at least 339 homes collapsed. Read the earlier Tibet earthquake report