5.0-magnitude earthquake hits Tibet county

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County in Xigaze of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China on Monday night. Officials said no casualties were reported so far.

The quake shook the area around the holy town of Xigaze at 8.58 pm local time, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC).

No casualties have been reported so far, said Tashi Dondrup, the county head of Dingri, adding that further investigation was underway.


The same area was hit by a 6.8-magnitude quake on January 7, in which 126 people were killed and 188 others injured. China has launched massive relief and rescue operations in the area.

Monday's quake struck at a depth of 10 km, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, quoting CENC.

The earthquake was also felt in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, and surrounding areas, according to the Himalayan nation's National Earthquake Monitoring Centre.

So far, no reports of damage caused by the tremor have been reported in Nepal.

Since the January 7 quake, the area has been hit by over 640 tremors, of which Monday's tremor was the strongest, according to the regional earthquake bureau.