Seismic Jolt: Tibet's Shigatse Rocked by 6.8 Magnitude Quake

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Tibet's city of Shigatse on Tuesday, with tremors reaching as far as Kathmandu, Nepal. The quake's epicenter was 10 km deep, causing significant concern in an area frequently impacted by seismic activity. History recalls a similar event in Sichuan in 2008.

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale shook the city of Shigatse in Tibet early Tuesday morning, the China Earthquake Networks Centre reported. The tremors extended over 400 kilometers to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, where residents fled their homes amid the shaking.

The epicenter of the quake was located 10 kilometers beneath the surface, creating a potentially destructive situation in a region accustomed to seismic activity. This earthquake is just the latest in a series of significant tremors affecting southwestern China, where a devastating quake in Sichuan in 2008 claimed nearly 70,000 lives.

Local media and China's state broadcaster CCTV noted that the Shigatse area has experienced 29 earthquakes above magnitude 3 in the last five years. The nation remembers the deadly 2015 quake near Kathmandu, which resulted in around 9,000 fatalities and thousands more injured in one of Nepal's most catastrophic natural disasters.

(With inputs from agencies.)