Rescuers searched for survivors Tuesday after a strong earthquake shook a high-altitude region of western China and areas of Nepal, damaging hundreds of houses, littering streets with rubble and killing at least 126 people in Tibet.
Many others were believed to be trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the remote region. Earth’s tallest peak, on Mount Everest, is about 75 kilometers southwest of the quake’s epicenter.
Rescue workers climbed over mounds of debris, some using ladders to look for survivors in heavily damaged villages. China's Ministry of Emergency Management posted video showing two people being carried on stretchers by workers treading over the debris from collapsed homes.
At least 188 people were injured in Tibet on the Chinese side of the border, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
About 150 aftershocks were recorded in the nine hours after the earthquake, and the Mount Everest scenic area on the Chinese side was closed.
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. The average altitude in the area is about 4,200 meters, the Chinese earthquake center said in a social media post.
More than 1,000 homes were damaged in the barren and sparsely populated region, CCTV said. Its video footage showed that building debris littered streets and crushed cars.
People in northeastern Nepal 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 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.
