Rescuers in China’s Tibet region searched Wednesday for survivors trapped in rubble, a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least 126 people and injured 188 others.
Chinese officials said more than 400 people have been rescued so far.
Some 30,000 people have also been relocated after the quake, which destroyed more than 3,600 homes.
Complicating the rescue effort were several hundred aftershocks and frigid temperatures in the region.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for a massive rescue effort to minimize casualties and to resettle those whose homes were damaged. More than 3,000 rescuers were deployed, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing was dispatched to the area to oversee the relief work and the government allocated $13.6 million for the effort. About 6,900 people live in three townships and 27 villages within 20 kilometers of the epicenter on the Chinese side, state media said.
People in northeastern Nepal strongly felt the earthquake, but there were no initial reports of injuries or damage, according to the country's National Emergency Operation Center.
The area around Mount Everest was empty in the depth of winter when even some residents leave to escape the cold.
The quake woke up residents in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu — about 230 kilometers from the epicenter — and sent many of them running into the streets.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured magnitude 7.1 and was relatively shallow at a depth of about 10 kilometers. China's Earthquake Networks Center recorded the magnitude as 6.8. Shallow earthquakes often cause more damage.
The epicenter was in Tibet's Tingri county, where the India and Eurasia plates grind against each other and can cause earthquakes strong enough to change the heights of some of the world's tallest peaks in the Himalayan mountains.
There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday's quake hit over the past century, U.S. officials said.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
