An earthquake of magnitude 7 struck China's southwestern region of Tibet at around 10:33 p.m. on Thursday, killing 16 people and injuring 65 others, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing Nagqu City's emergency management bureau.
The quake, with an epicenter in Nagqu, a sparsely populated, high-altitude city in northern Tibet, is the strongest to hit China since January 2024.
More than 300 police officers, including traffic and community police personnel, were sent to the epicenter 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.
Officers sent to the region checked for damage to homes and helped people relocate to safer locations, the Nagqu police also said in the WeChat post.
A video the police posted on TikTok sister app Douyin showed officers packing supplies in a truck in the dark and inspecting a building and rubble with flashlights.
More than 12,000 people have been safely relocated, state media outlet Xinhua reported.
Videos previously released by local official media showed people leaving their homes and seeking shelter outside or in their cars parked on the street. One resident reported being awakened by the strong quake and hearing the house squeaking during the tremor.
The China Earthquake Networks Center said in a post that 413 aftershocks had been recorded.
Magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck in 2010
In 2010, a magnitude 7.1 tremor struck Yushu in neighboring Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 people missing.
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