Screams filled the streets as people rushed out of buildings, scrambling for safety as a powerful magnitude 7 earthquake rocked China's southwestern region of Tibet on Thursday night, killing 16 people and injuring 54 others, according to the Associated Press

Videos circulating on social media captured scenes of panic and confusion, with people rushing into the streets and desperately looking for safety as the ground shook beneath them.

Footage also showed residents gathering outside their homes and taking shelter in cars parked along the roads, wary of returning indoors after the powerful tremors.

Inside grocery stores, items fell from shelves as the shaking sent people scrambling for safety. One resident said the earthquake woke them from sleep, with the house making squeaking sounds as it shook.

The earthquake struck at around 10.33 pm local time (1433 GMT) on Thursday, with its epicentre in a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

The scale of the destruction became clearer as search and rescue operations continued in the quake-hit region. At least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials, according to the associated press.

More than 1,600 people from the local county were deployed for rescue operations as authorities worked to reach affected residents and assess the damage.

Relief supplies also began arriving in the region, including 1,000 prefabricated housing units, around 3,000 tents and folding beds, along with flashlights and winter clothing to help people affected by the earthquake.

Local fire and rescue teams were mobilised and sent towards the affected areas, state media reported, as authorities responded to reports of deaths, injuries and damaged buildings.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to China's seismology agency. The average elevation within 5 km of the epicentre is around 4,864 metres (15,960 feet), CENC data showed, highlighting the challenging high-altitude terrain in which rescue teams are operating.

The powerful quake was followed by a series of smaller tremors, measuring around magnitude 3 and 4, in surrounding areas, according to CENC data.

The earthquake is the strongest to hit China since January 2024.

Earlier, in 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Yushu in neighbouring Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 others missing.

Source: India Today