Strong earthquake strikes in China’s Tibet region near border with Nepal

BEIJING — A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in western China near Nepal on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake was centered in China’s Tibet region at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

China’s earthquake monitoring agency recorded the magnitude as 6.8. The average altitude in the area around the epicenter is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

The CCTV online report said there were a handful of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

In Nepal, the earthquake sent residents running out of their homes in the capital, Kathmandu. Streets were filled with people woken up by the tremor.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed some 9,000 people and damaged about 1 million structures in Nepal in 2015.