Baqen Earthquake Follow-up: Official Injured Toll Revised to 46, Death Toll Stays at 16 in Nagqu, China's Tibet Region
NAGQU — Casualty figures for the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqen County, Nagqu, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, have been revised after further checks. Citing the Nagqu earthquake relief command, CCTV News reported that as of 5:20 a.m. Beijing time on October 23, the earthquake had killed 16 people and injured 46, including 11 seriously injured and 35 with minor injuries; 339 households had houses collapsed or damaged, and 20 livestock sheds were damaged.
It is the first full official breakdown of the casualties. The Associated Press earlier reported preliminary figures from Nagqu city government officials of 16 dead and 32 injured, 11 of them seriously and 21 with minor injuries; in the revision, the death toll is unchanged, while the number with minor injuries rose from 21 to 35, lifting the injured total to 46. A separate Chinese media report put the death toll at 18, which does not match the relief command's figures, and a final official toll has yet to be confirmed.
The command said relief supplies have been arriving in the disaster area and that rescue forces are carrying out search and rescue and medical treatment work. After the quake, the China Earthquake Administration activated a Level-II emergency response, while the office of the State Council's earthquake relief headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management activated a national Level-IV earthquake disaster emergency response and dispatched a work team to the area; CCTV previously reported that railway services through the affected area were suspended and that a series of aftershocks was recorded.
The earthquake struck at 10:33 p.m. Beijing time on October 22. The China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) placed the epicentre in Baqen County, at 32.40 degrees north latitude and 93.79 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 10 kilometres; the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) also measured magnitude 7.0, with a maximum intensity of VIII. The average elevation within 5 kilometres of the epicentre is about 4,864 metres, in a sparsely populated area about 400 kilometres from Lhasa, the regional capital. Reuters said it was the strongest earthquake to hit China since January 2024.
Tibet sits on the collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian plates and is prone to powerful earthquakes. In 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Yushu in neighbouring Qinghai Province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 missing.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国地质调查局（USGS）发布的本次地震烈度分布图（ShakeMap，修订版）：震中位于中国西藏那曲市巴青县一带，震级7.0级，最大烈度VIII度。美国联邦政府作品，公共领域（经 Wikimedia Commons 取得）。USGS ShakeMap (revised version) of the October 22, 2026 magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqen County, Nagqu, Tibet, China, showing maximum intensity VIII. U.S. Geological Survey, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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