Nagqu Earthquake Kills 16, Destroys 339 Homes in Northern Tibet

A magnitude-7 earthquake struck northern Tibet on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people and injuring 54. The Nagqu media office confirmed that 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed in and around the regional city of Nagqu. Search and rescue operations were still ongoing as of Friday morning.

The US Geological Survey recorded the tremor at 10:33 p.m. local time. The epicenter was located 119 miles east-north-east of Nagqu in a sparsely populated, high-altitude area. The quake occurred at a depth of 11 miles. The agency logged at least seven aftershocks ranging from magnitude 4.3 to 5.2, each at a depth of 6 miles. CCTV labeled the event the largest quake in the region in five years.

Rescue teams deployed more than 1,600 personnel from the local county. Xinhua reported that over 300 police officers and nearly 350 fire and rescue service members joined the effort. Authorities dispatched 1,000 prefabricated housing units and approximately 3,000 tents to the site. The shipment also included folding beds, torches, and winter clothing to prepare for dropping temperatures.

Infrastructure damage has disrupted logistics. Communications went down in parts of the affected zone, and local railway authorities halted train traffic through the region. Rockfalls closed a section of National Highway 317, restricting access to emergency and official vehicles while crews cleared debris. Intermittent snow is forecast for the next three days, adding complexity to the operation.

President Xi Jinping called for an all-out effort in rescue and medical relief. Nagqu is situated more than 185 miles north of Lhasa. Earthquakes are common in China, with recent deadly events including a 2025 quake in Tingri county that killed 126 people and a 2023 tremor in Gansu province that claimed at least 134 lives.

Tibet remains one of China's poorest regions and is seismically active. The area was brought under Chinese control in the 1950s. In August, a flood hit the Tibet-Nepal border, though limited media access obscured the full scale of that damage. The current earthquake has drawn renewed attention to the region's vulnerability and the speed of the state's response.