Beijing – A powerful earthquake killed at least 32 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others stranded as a series of aftershocks shook the region in western China and across the border in Nepal.
An official Xinhua News Agency said another 38 people were injured, citing the regional disaster relief headquarters.
About 1,500 firefighters and rescuers have been assigned to search for people in the rubble, said the Department of Emergency Management.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and was relatively shallow at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). China recorded the maximum as 6.8.
The incident was about 75 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Mount Everest, which crosses the border. The area vibrates with earthquakes, when the Indian and Eurasian plates collide and create a rise in the Himalayas that is strong enough to change the height of some of the world's tallest peaks.
The average elevation in the area around the event is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), the China Earthquake Networks Center said on social media.
State broadcaster CCTV said there are a number of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the disaster, which is 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from in the second largest region. The city of Shigatse, known as Xigaze in Chinese.
About 230 kilometers (140 miles) from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake jolted residents and sent them fleeing from their homes to the streets. No information was immediately available from remote, mountainous areas of Nepal close to the base.
There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday's quake struck in the past 100 years, the USGS said.
Associated Press writer Binaj Gurubacharya in Kathmandu, Nepal, and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
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