
An earthquake of 5 magnitude on the Richter scale rocked Tibet on Monday, days after the Himalayan region faced massive destruction from a quake on January 7, that killed over 100 people. The jolt on Monday shook the Dingri County in Xigaze of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
The earthquake shook the area around the holy town of Xigaze at 8:58 pm local time, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). 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.
No casualties have been reported so far, said Tashi Dondrup, the county head of Dingri, adding that further investigation was underway.
Earthquake felt at Nepal's Kathmandu
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.
Relief work in the quake-hit areas of Tibet
China said on Monday that disaster relief work in the quake-hit areas of Tibet was proceeding smoothly and that it was confident of winning the “tough battle” to restore normalcy in the affected areas.
Rescuers braved the bitter cold and low oxygen levels on the high-altitude plateau and raced against time to find and rescue those trapped to minimize casualties, said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.
"The disaster response and relief work is generally proceeding smoothly. We are confident in winning this tough battle of quake response and returning work and life to normal in the affected areas as soon as possible," Guo said during a media briefing here.
(With PTI inputs)