Strong Earthquake Jolts Tibet, Killing 30

Strong Earthquake jolts Tibet, killing 30

Oct. 6, 2008
Yahoo News

BEIJING - China's official Xinhua News Agency says 30 people are dead after an earthquake struck Tibet.

The news agency said Monday a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit a county near Tibet's capital Lhasa.

The U.S. Geological Survey said there were two quakes. The first measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 4:30 p.m. 50 miles west of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles away from Beijing.

The second temblor measuring magnitude 5.1 hit about 15 minutes later, some 60 miles west of the Tibetan capital.

BEIJING (AP) — A pair of earthquakes jolted Tibet's capital and surrounding areas Monday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, U.S. and Chinese seismologists said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 4:30 p.m. (4:30 a.m. EDT) 50 miles west of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles away from Beijing.

The second temblor measuring magnitude 5.1 hit about 15 minutes later, about 60 miles west of the Tibetan capital, it said.

China's State Seismological Bureau said the initial temblor was centered in Dangxiong county, which has a population of about 42,000 people, mostly herdsmen.

"I felt the building shaking a little bit and saw a bench overturn," said Ge San, an employee at the Baima Hotel in Dangxiong, who was sitting in a room with about five other employees.

"The shaking was not heavy. We stayed in the room and were not frightened," she said, adding that all the hotel's guests remained on the premises.

In Lhasa, employees at the Civil Affairs Bureau rushed out of their building when the tremors began but returned soon after, said an official who refused to give her name.

"I was in my office on the third floor," she said. "The shaking lasted for about half a minute."

The official Xinhua News Agency said that so far, none of the city's landmarks, such as the famed Potala Palace, appeared to be damaged.

One of the agency's reporters in Lhasa said shops remained open and there was no panic on the streets.

Authorities said seismologists and officials had been sent to the area and were assessing the situation.

China's far west is fairly earthquake prone. On Sunday, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6 magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.

Tibet, a remote, sparsely populated region, has been hit by several moderate earthquakes in recent weeks.

Last month, a magnitude 6 quake struck near its border with Nepal but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

In late August, the USGS reported that an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 hit the region. Chinese state media said schools, a hydropower station and 622 homes were damaged and about 2,000 people forced to seek temporary shelter.

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated a swathe of Sichuan province, just east of Tibet, killing 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.