NAGQU, Tibet — A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the high-altitude Nagqu region of Tibet late on Thursday night, killing at least 16 people, injuring dozens and collapsing 339 homes, according to Chinese state media and the region's emergency management bureau. Rescue teams are racing against falling temperatures and forecast snowfall to reach remote villages cut off by rockfalls.
The tremor hit at about 10:33 p.m. local time (8:03 p.m. IST) on October 22, in Baqên County — a sparsely populated stretch of northern Tibet roughly 400 kilometres from the capital, Lhasa. It is the strongest earthquake to hit China since January 2024, and the second major quake to strike Tibet in less than two years.
File photo: collapsed houses after the January 2025 earthquake in Tibet's Tingri County. Thursday night's 7.0-magnitude quake has again destroyed hundreds of homes across northern Tibet. (Photo: China News Service, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
What we know so far
Here's what is confirmed across multiple sources — Reuters, Xinhua, the Associated Press and India's National Centre for Seismology (NCS):
Death toll and injuries: At least 16 people have been killed. The number of injured is rising as reports come in — Reuters, citing the local government on Friday, put the figure at 65, while earlier reports counted 32 and then 46. At least 11 of the injured are in serious condition.
Damage: At least 339 houses and 20 livestock sheds have collapsed. Officials say the full extent of the damage is still being assessed, and disaster-relief operations are underway. Strong tremors were felt in the Tibetan cities of Qamdo and Nyingchi.
Where exactly: The epicentre was in Baqên County within the Nagqu region. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) placed it about 191 km east-northeast of Nagqu city at a depth of 18 km. Agencies differ on the exact depth — India's NCS recorded it at 20:03:43 IST — but the location is consistent: a remote, high-altitude area where help is hard to reach.
Prayer flags fly at Tanggula Pass in the Nagqu region of northern Tibet. The epicentre lies in remote high-altitude terrain where rescue teams now face cold and snow. (Photo: guan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A rescue race against the cold
The earthquake response is unfolding on one of the harshest terrains on Earth. More than 300 police officers have been sent to the epicentre, the regional fire and rescue corps has deployed 347 personnel, and some reports put the total rescue force above 1,600. More than 12,000 people have been relocated to safer areas, according to Xinhua.
Authorities have dispatched 1,000 prefabricated housing units, 3,000 tents, folding beds, flashlights and warm clothing — urgent supplies for a plateau where nighttime temperatures plunge below freezing and snowfall is forecast over the coming days.
Transport links have taken a hit: local rail services through the quake zone were suspended, and sections of National Highway 317 were closed after rockfalls, with access restricted to emergency and rescue vehicles. Meanwhile, the China Earthquake Networks Center has recorded 413 aftershocks — a reminder that the danger is not over.
A train on the high-altitude Qinghai–Tibet railway near Nagqu. Rail services through the quake-hit areas were suspended after Thursday night's tremor. (Photo: Yaohua2000, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Why Tibet keeps shaking
Tibet sits on the Tibetan Plateau — the collision zone of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that built the Himalayas. The plateau is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, and it has had a punishing two years:
January 2025: a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Tingri County, killing more than 120 people and injuring hundreds — the disaster shown in the photo above.
August 2026: a glacial collapse near the Nepal–Tibet border triggered devastating floods and debris flows, killing over 1,200 people across the region.
October 22, 2026: Thursday night's 7.0 quake near Nagqu — the strongest to hit China since January 2024.
Experts warn that the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is caught in a compounding cycle: rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more extreme weather are piling on top of the region's already fierce tectonic activity, raising the risk of each new disaster.
Why this matters for India
For Indian readers, this is not a faraway story. The same Indian–Eurasian plate collision that shook Tibet on Thursday is what makes India's entire Himalayan belt — from Jammu and Kashmir through Uttarakhand, Nepal and the Northeast — one of the world's most earthquake-prone zones. Tremors from major Tibetan quakes routinely travel south into the Himalayan states, and India's National Centre for Seismology monitors every one of them.
Beyond geology, the region's disasters keep spilling across borders: the August floods killed hundreds on both sides of the Nepal–Tibet line. How China manages rescue and rebuilding in these remote high-altitude zones also offers hard lessons for disaster response in India's own Himalayan regions, where altitude and weather complicate every relief operation.
What happens next
The death toll may still change as rescue teams reach cut-off villages and the damage assessment continues. Intermittent snowfall forecast over the coming days will make the work harder — and hypothermia, not just the rubble, is now the enemy.
For now, officials are focused on shelter: getting tents and prefabricated homes to more than 12,000 displaced people before the weather turns. Expect updates through Friday as the picture from Baqên County gets clearer.
Watch: BBC News report on the earthquake that struck Tibet on October 22–23, 2026.
FAQs: Tibet earthquake, October 2026
How strong was the Tibet earthquake and when did it happen?
It measured magnitude 7.0 and struck at about 10:33 p.m. local time on Thursday, October 22, 2026 (8:03 p.m. IST). It is the strongest earthquake to hit China since January 2024.
Where was the epicentre?
In Baqên County, in Tibet's northern Nagqu region — about 191 km east-northeast of Nagqu city and roughly 400 km from Lhasa, according to the USGS and Chinese authorities.
How many people were killed or injured?
At least 16 people were killed. The injury count is rising: Reuters, citing the local government, reported 65 injured on Friday, up from earlier counts of 32 and 46. At least 11 are in serious condition.
Was India affected?
The quake's epicentre was in northern Tibet, far from the Indian border, and no damage in India has been reported. India's National Centre for Seismology recorded the tremor. Major Tibetan quakes can be felt in Himalayan states, but this one was deep in the plateau.
Why does Tibet get so many earthquakes?
Tibet sits on the Tibetan Plateau, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates are colliding — the same force that built the Himalayas. This makes the region one of the most earthquake-prone places on Earth.
Sources: Reuters; Xinhua via IANS/ANI; Associated Press; U.S. Geological Survey; India's National Centre for Seismology; CCTV. Photos: China News Service / guan / Yaohua2000 via Wikimedia Commons.