Baqen Earthquake Follow-up: Injured Toll Rises to 65 as 12,489 Residents Are Safely Relocated in Nagqu, Tibet, China
NAGQU — Casualty figures for the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqen County, Nagqu, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, have been revised upward again. Xinhua reported on October 23 that, according to the Nagqu earthquake relief command, as of 10:00 a.m. that day the earthquake had killed 16 people and injured 65, including 11 seriously injured and 54 with minor injuries. The death toll is unchanged from earlier briefings, while the injured count rose by 11 from the previously reported 54. After sustained work by rescue forces, 12,489 affected residents had been safely relocated, and grid-style damage checks, rescue work and resettlement were still under way.
On the relief effort, Reuters cited a WeChat post by the Nagqu public security bureau saying more than 300 police officers, including traffic and community police, had been sent to the epicentre area to carry out rescue and emergency work, check homes for damage and help residents move to safer locations. Xinhua reported earlier that China's national fire and rescue service had dispatched 350 personnel and 83 vehicles, with 120 personnel and 27 vehicles already in the disaster area as of 6:30 a.m. on October 23 and 230 personnel and 56 vehicles of the Tibet fire and rescue corps en route; the State Council earthquake relief headquarters office and the Ministry of Emergency Management had raised the national earthquake disaster emergency response from Level IV to Level III.
Damage verification is continuing. Earlier briefings put collapsed or damaged houses at 339 households and damaged livestock sheds at 20, with the figures still being checked. 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: 那曲市位置示意图：红色高亮为中国西藏自治区那曲市在西藏及周边地区中的位置。作者 Keithonearth，以 CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL 双授权发布，经 Wikimedia Commons 取得。Locator map highlighting Nagqu (red) within China's Tibet Autonomous Region. By Keithonearth, dual-licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons.
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