China quake death toll rises to 53 after 6.9 magnitude tremor hits Shigatse

Arab Weather - The death toll from the earthquake that struck Tibet on Tuesday has risen to at least 53, in addition to 62 injuries, according to a report by the Chinese news agency "Xinhua".

China Central Television reported that the earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and struck the city of Shigatse in Tibet. According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the quake struck at 01:05 GMT and at a depth of 10 kilometers.

On the other hand, Indian media reported that residents of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, located about 400 kilometers away, felt the earthquake, which prompted many of them to flee their homes.

Southwestern China is prone to frequent earthquakes. In 2008, a devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province killed about 70,000 people.

China Central Television reported that the region has seen 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater within 200 kilometers of the Shigatse quake in the past five years, but all were less powerful than the latest quake.

It is also noteworthy that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck an area near Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2015, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands, in one of the most devastating seismic disasters in Nepal's history.

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Seismic Observatory