Strong quake shakes China's Tibet

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck China's southwestern Tibet region on Thursday, injuring at least two people and damaging homes in villages near the epicentre, sending panicking residents flee their homes and seek shelter outdoors or inside parked cars, according to Chinese state media.

The China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC) said the quake struck at around 10:33pm local time in a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, at a depth of 10 kilometres. The epicentre lies around 400 kilometres from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that at least two people were injured in a nearby village, with cracks appearing in some houses closest to the epicentre.