China Earthquake Update: Death toll rises to nearly 100

BEIJING/KATHMANDU January 7 — A magnitude 6.8 earthquake, opens new tab rocked the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, killing at least 95 people and shaking buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and India.

The quake hit at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT), with its epicentre located in Tingri, a rural county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. The U.S. Geological Service put the quake's magnitude at 7.1.

At least 95 people were known to have been killed and 130 injured on the Tibetan side, China's state-run television reported six hours later. There were no reports of deaths elsewhere.

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

Tuesday's epicentre was around 80 km (50 miles) north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.

Winter is not a popular season for climbers and hikers in Nepal, with a German climber the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Mount Everest. He had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, Lilathar Awasthi, a Department of Tourism official, said.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.

"So far we have not received any information of any loss of life and property," NDRRMA spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters. "We have mobilised police, security forces and local authorities to collect information," he said.

Many villages in the Nepalese border area, which are sparsely populated, are remote and can only be reached by foot.