Magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Tibet kills 16, injures 76
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Baqen County in Tibet's Nagqu region late Thursday local time (7:33 a.m. PT), killing 16 people and injuring 76, China's state news agency Xinhua said. State media reported 339 houses collapsed or damaged and more than 12,000 people evacuated.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Baqen County in Nagqu City, in China's Xizang (Tibet) region, at 10:33 p.m. local time Thursday. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake about 191 kilometers east-northeast of Nagqu at a depth of about 18 kilometers and issued an orange alert for likely casualties.
Why it matters
Rescue conditions are harsh and information is limited. The quake zone sits above 4,500 meters and is at least a 10-hour drive from Lhasa, AFP reported. Tibet is largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, so Chinese authorities are the only official source of figures.
More context
The toll so far: Xinhua reported Friday that 16 people were killed and 76 injured, 11 of them seriously, according to AFP's account. State media said 339 houses collapsed or were damaged and more than 12,000 people were evacuated. More than 300 soldiers were mobilized for rescue work.
How the count changed: Early reports Thursday night cited 16 dead and 32 injured (NBC); AP later reported 54 injured, and Xinhua's Friday update raised that to 76. The death toll held at 16 across those updates.
What Beijing said: Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the quake caused "significant casualties" and called on officials to "go all-out to carry out search and rescue operations," according to state media cited by AFP.
Context: In January 2025 a quake in Tibet's Tingri County killed 126 people, and a December 2023 quake in Gansu province killed 148, AFP noted.
What's still unknown: Whether the toll rises as rescuers reach remote villages, the full extent of damage beyond the 339 homes reported, and any independent verification of the official figures.
5 listed sources
- Xinhua, Oct. 23, 2026
- U.S. Geological Survey, event us6000u43g
- CNA (AFP), Oct. 23, 2026
- AP, Oct. 23, 2026
- NBC News, Oct. 22, 2026
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
Sourcing: Casualty and damage figures come from Chinese state media (Xinhua), relayed by AFP/CNA, AP and NBC; Tibet is largely closed to foreign journalists, so no independent count exists. Magnitude, time and depth are from the U.S. Geological Survey. The photo is a 2011 file image of Amdo County, also in Nagqu, not the quake zone.
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