Strong earthquake kills at least 9 people in western China

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in western China near Nepal on Tuesday morning, killing at least nine people.

State broadcaster CCTV cited the Ministry of Emergency Management for the toll but did not say what caused the deaths.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.1 earthquake was centered in the Tibet region at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). China recorded the magnitude as 6.8.

The epicenter was located where the India and Eurasia plates clash and cause uplifts in the Himalayan mountains strong enough to change the heights of some of the world’s tallest peaks.

The average altitude in the area around the epicenter is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

CCTV said there were a handful of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from the region’s second-largest city of Xigaze.

In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, the earthquake sent residents running out of their homes after they were woken up by the tremor. No information was immediately available from the remote, mountainous areas closer to the epicenter across the border.

There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday’s quake hit over the past century, the USGS said.