At least 53 people have been confirmed dead and 62 are injured after a major earthquake struck the mountainous Tibet region on Tuesday morning, Chinese state media reported.
The earthquake that hit Tibet’s holy Shigatse city around 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), according to data from the US Geological Survey, which also showed a series of aftershocks in the area.
Tremors were also felt in neighbouring Nepal and parts of India.
May 2008, a 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan province in the southwest killed nearly 90,000 people. The collapse of schools and other buildings led to a yearslong effort to rebuild using more quake-resistant materials