Baqen Earthquake Follow-up: Injured Toll Rises to 54 as China Raises National Earthquake Response to Level III in Nagqu, Tibet

NAGQU — Casualty figures for the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqen County, Nagqu, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, have been revised again. Xinhua reported on October 23 that the earthquake had killed 16 people and injured 54. It is another upward revision by the Nagqu earthquake relief command, which had reported 32 injured as of 2:25 a.m. and 46 injured as of 5:20 a.m. Beijing time; the death toll remains at 16. Earlier reported damage figures — 339 households with collapsed or damaged houses and 20 damaged livestock sheds — were still being verified.

Alongside the revised toll, China raised its national response level. According to Xinhua, Zhang Chengzhong, deputy commander-in-chief of the State Council's earthquake relief headquarters and Minister of Emergency Management, has been directing the response; under the national earthquake emergency plan, the headquarters office and the Ministry of Emergency Management raised the national earthquake disaster emergency response from Level IV to Level III, and dispatched a work team led by Wang Kun, deputy commander-in-chief of the headquarters and head of the China Earthquake Administration, to the quake zone. The ministry also directed the Tibet regional emergency management department to send a Wing Loong drone to the disaster area for damage reconnaissance.

On rescue forces, China's national fire and rescue service dispatched 350 personnel and 83 vehicles; as of 6:30 a.m. Beijing time on October 23, 120 personnel and 27 vehicles had arrived in the disaster area, while 230 personnel and 56 vehicles of the Tibet fire and rescue corps were en route and had entered Nagqu. Baqen County had earlier mobilised more than 1,600 people for front-line relief work, and relief supplies have been arriving in the area. According to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) catalogue, 413 aftershocks had been recorded in the quake zone as of 7:00 a.m. on October 23, the largest measuring magnitude 4.3.

The earthquake struck at 10:33 p.m. Beijing time on October 22. 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; the China Earthquake Administration had earlier activated a Level-II emergency response.

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: 震中位置示意图：粉色为中国西藏自治区那曲市巴青县，黄色为那曲市范围。作者 Croquant，CC BY 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons 取得。Locator map showing Baqen County (pink) within Nagqu (yellow) in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. By Croquant, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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