30 killed in Tibet earthquakes
At least 30 people were killed when a pair of earthquakes jolted Tibet’s capital and surrounding areas today, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The US Geological Survey said the first quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 4.30pm local time, 50 miles west of Lhasa.
The second tremor, measuring magnitude 5.1, hit about 15 minutes later, it said.
China’s State Seismological Bureau said the initial quake was centred in Dangxiong county, which has a population of about 42,000 people, mostly herdsmen.
In Lhasa, employees at the Civil Affairs Bureau rushed out of their building when the tremors began but returned soon after, said an official.
“I was in my office on the third floor,” she said. “The shaking lasted for about half a minute.”
Xinhua said that so far, none of the city’s landmarks, such as the famed Potala Palace, appeared to be damaged.
One of the agency’s reporters in Lhasa said shops remained open and there was no panic on the streets.
Authorities said seismologists and officials had been sent to the area and were assessing the situation.
China’s far west is fairly earthquake prone. Yesterday, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6-magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.
Tibet, a remote, sparsely populated region, has been hit by several moderate earthquakes in recent weeks.
A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated a swathe of Sichuan province, just east of Tibet, killing 70,000 people and leaving five million homeless.
