Agencies
BEIJING/KATHMANDU
A strong earthquake struck the foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday, killing at least 126 people and flattening hundreds of houses. The magnitude 6.8 quake’s epicentre was about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Tremors also shook buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and India. The impact was felt across the Shigatse region of Tibet, home to 800,000 people.
The region is administered from Shigatse city, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism. Many homes in Shigatse city were reduced to rubble, video released by Tibet Fire and Rescue showed. Rescue workers searched through the debris of a ruined home and pulled out one injured person, it showed. Adding to the misery for those left homeless, temperatures in the region had fallen to minus 6 degrees Celsius late on Tuesday, and were forecast to drop as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius overnight. pagE 7
