Update · Oct. 22, 2026, 10:03 PM PT: The injured count has risen to 65. Citing Nagqu’s earthquake relief headquarters, a CCTV News report carried by Huanqiu says that as of 10 a.m. on Oct. 23 local time, further checks had found 65 people injured, 11 seriously and 54 lightly, while the number of dead (16) and the damage to houses and livestock pens had not changed; 12,489 people had moved to safety (this desk’s translation). The BBC’s live page, citing local media, also reports 65 injured and more than 12,400 people relocated. China’s Finance Ministry and Ministry of Emergency Management rushed 50 million yuan in central disaster-relief funds to Tibet on Oct. 23, the Finance Ministry says, as Yicai reports. This story now carries those figures.
A powerful earthquake seems to have killed at least 16 people on the Tibetan Plateau late on Thursday, Oct. 22. The U.S. Geological Survey rates the quake at magnitude 7.0 and puts its center 191 km east-northeast of the city of Nagqu, about 18 km underground. It struck at 14:33 UTC, which Al Jazeera gives as about 10:33 p.m. local time. Chinese state news agency Xinhua places the epicenter in Baqên County (Baqing in Chinese), part of Nagqu City in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which Beijing calls Xizang. The BBC puts the county about 400 km north-east of the regional capital, Lhasa; Al Jazeera, citing the USGS, gives 390 km.
The toll comes almost entirely from Chinese official sources. Citing Nagqu’s emergency management bureau, Xinhua reported in Chinese that, as of 2:25 a.m. on Oct. 23, a first check had found 16 people dead and 32 injured, 11 of them seriously and 21 lightly, with houses collapsed for 339 households (this desk’s translation). The agency added, in this desk’s translation, that officials keep checking the damage further, which leaves room for both numbers to change. Xinhua’s English report gives the same 16 dead and 32 injured. A later report from the state-run China News Service puts the injured at 54, with the deaths still at 16, and the Ministry of Emergency Management gives the same 16 dead and 54 injured. By 10 a.m. on Oct. 23, Nagqu’s earthquake relief headquarters counted 65 injured, with the death toll unchanged, according to a CCTV News report carried by Huanqiu.
Rescue teams seem to have reached the quake zone within hours. China National Radio reports that a forward team of eight firefighters in two vehicles from the Baqên County brigade arrived at 2:10 a.m. and, ten minutes later, rescued one trapped person in Village 2 of Maru Township. The same report says the Tibet fire and rescue corps sent 347 rescuers, 82 fire engines and 15 search dogs, along with more than 4,200 sets of equipment. Xinhua photo captions describe a fire brigade from neighboring Sog County checking houses in Nagong village of Gangqie Township, and a first China Railway Group rescue unit arriving at 4 a.m.
Beijing stepped up its response overnight. According to the China News Service, the State Council’s earthquake relief office and the Ministry of Emergency Management raised the national earthquake disaster response from Level IV to Level III and sent a working group led by Wang Kun, head of the China Earthquake Administration. Minister of Emergency Management Zhang Chengzhong directed the work, and Wing Loong drones flew to the area to survey damage, the report says. National fire and rescue units dispatched 350 people and 83 vehicles; by 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 23, 120 people and 27 vehicles had arrived. Separately, the ministry says it started a Level IV national disaster-relief response and shipped cotton tents, cotton coats, quilts and folding beds from central stockpiles. Al Jazeera, citing Xinhua, reports that a Level II earthquake emergency response also took effect in the area.
Conditions on the ground seem harsh. The BBC, citing local reports, says power has gone out in the affected area, and it reports that rockfalls closed roads, “making it more difficult for crews to reach impacted high-altitude areas.” People also felt strong tremors in the cities of Qamdo and Nyingchi, the BBC says. Al Jazeera writes, citing Xinhua, that videos from local state media showed people leaving their homes to shelter outside or in parked cars.
The USGS expects real damage. Its PAGER system, which estimates likely losses within hours of a quake, issued an orange alert for economic losses, meaning “significant damage is likely and the disaster is potentially widespread,” and a yellow alert for deaths, meaning “some casualties are possible.” The agency estimates that about 111,000 people felt moderate to severe shaking. It notes that many people in the region live in “adobe block and unreinforced brick with mud” buildings, which it calls vulnerable to strong shaking. The USGS also warns that aftershocks, “some potentially with strong shaking,” may follow.
The quake seems to fit a long pattern of Tibetan seismic activity. According to the USGS, the plateau sits above the collision of the India and Eurasia plates, and the quake came from normal faulting, in which the crust stretches apart, consistent with the plateau spreading east and west under its own weight. The USGS counts 29 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or larger on the plateau and its edges since 1900. A magnitude 6.9 quake about 272 km to the east-northeast killed more than 2,500 people on April 13, 2010, the agency says, while the sparse population of this part of the plateau can limit the toll of large quakes. The BBC recalls that a magnitude 6.2 quake in neighboring Gansu province killed more than 120 people in 2023.
Independent checks on the figures seem difficult. The BBC notes that Tibet ranks among the most tightly controlled regions in China, that foreign media face restrictions there, and that Chinese state media serve as the main source of updates and details when such disasters happen. Social media videos of villagers running into the streets have not gained independent verification, the BBC adds. This desk relied on the USGS for the quake’s size and location and on Chinese state media for casualties, which may change as officials finish their checks.