16 killed, 32 injured after 7.0-magnitude quake hits Tibet

October 23, 2026

Lhasa: Sixteen people were killed and 32 others injured after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Tibet on Thursday, according to the city’s emergency management bureau.

As of 2:25 a.m. Friday, 11 of the injured were in serious condition while 21 sustained minor injuries. Over 300 houses collapsed.

The damage caused by the quake is being further evaluated, and disaster relief work is underway, reports Xinhua news agency.

More than 300 police officers have been dispatched to the epicenter for relief work while the regional fire and rescue corps has mobilised 347 personnel to the affected areas.

The latest earthquake also follows seismic activity recorded in Tibet on September 3, when a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck at a depth of approximately 14 kilometres. In January 2025, another major earthquake measuring 6.8, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre, killed more than 120 people and injured hundreds.

According to India’s National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the earthquake occurred at a depth of 173 kilometres below the Earth’s surface. The epicentre was approximately 400 kilometres from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

Experts have warned that rising temperatures, retreating glaciers and increasingly extreme weather events could heighten natural disaster risks across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Experts say that the latest earthquake has renewed attention on the region’s vulnerability as communities continue to grapple with the consequences of recent disasters.

The earthquake has come weeks after an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26 triggered catastrophic flash floods. The floods swept away homes, roads and bridges, damaged hydropower projects, and left thousands of people missing, causing widespread destruction across the affected areas.

The earthquakes come weeks after devastating flash floods earlier in August this year which killed over 1,400 people in the Nepal-Tibet border region in August. The deadly floods originated near the Nepal-Tibet border.