Winter gear reaches Nagqu after 7.0 quake flattens 339 homes

Winter clothing and 1,000 prefabricated housing units arrived in the Nagqu region on Friday as rescue teams continued to clear debris from 339 collapsed homes. The supply drop came after a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the area at 10:33 p.m. on Thursday, killing at least 16 people and injuring 54.

The US Geological Survey placed the epicenter 119 miles east-northeast of Nagqu at a depth of 11 miles. The agency recorded seven aftershocks ranging from magnitude 4.3 to 5.2. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV labeled the event the largest earthquake in the region in five years. Footage from the network showed workers fleeing restaurants and goods falling from supermarket shelves during the initial shaking.

Local officials deployed more than 1,600 people from the county to assist in the search. Xinhua News Agency reported that over 300 police officers joined the effort, while regional fire and rescue services sent nearly 350 personnel. Supplies included approximately 3,000 tents, folding beds, and torches for those displaced from their homes.

Infrastructure damage complicated the response. Communications went down in parts of the affected zone, prompting railway authorities to halt trains passing through the area. Rockslides blocked a section of National Highway 317, restricting access to emergency and support vehicles while crews cleared the road. Meteorologists forecast intermittent snow for the next three days, adding to the challenges for rescuers working in the high-altitude terrain.

President Xi Jinping urged an all-out effort in the rescue and medical relief operations. The quake struck Nagqu, a city located more than 185 miles north of Lhasa. Tibet has experienced other major seismic events recently. In January 2025, at least 126 people died in an earthquake in Tingri county. A tremor in Gansu province in December 2023 killed at least 134 people, making it the deadliest quake in China since 2014.

The region remains seismically active. In August, a severe flood hit the border between Tibet and Nepal. Chinese authorities restricted international media access to the Tibetan side of the disaster, which limited the visibility of the damage at the time.