Tibet Quake Rattles Baqing County, Sixteen Dead, Thirty Two Injured, Roads Crack Wide Open

Baqing, China— A magnitude 7.0 earthquake slammed into Baqing County in Tibet on October 31, 2026, killing 16 people, injuring 32 others and knocking out roads across the high plateau.

The quake struck at shallow depth in the early morning hours. The China Earthquake Networks Center put the epicenter about 30 kilometers west of Baqing town, in Nagqu Prefecture. The shaking was felt hundreds of kilometers away. In Lhasa, people ran into the streets.

County officials said most of the dead were in three remote townships where stone and mud-brick houses collapsed. Those villages sit above 4,500 meters. Access is limited to one paved road. That road was blocked by rockslides within minutes.

By noon, local authorities had confirmed 16 fatalities. Thirty-two injuries were reported, eight of them critical. The Baqing County People’s Hospital was running on a generator. Doctors treated people in a hallway. A nurse said more were coming from the mountains on tractors.

The regional emergency command dispatched teams from Nagqu and Lhasa. The military sent a unit with search dogs and heavy equipment. One official said they were working with no heavy cranes. The altitude slows everything down. Cold was already biting by afternoon.

Aftershocks kept coming. The largest measured 5.4. It sent loose rocks down slopes and forced rescuers to pull back twice. Residents refused to go back inside. Families huddled around fires in open fields, wrapped in blankets issued by township cadres.

Communication was patchy. Fiber lines snapped in two valleys. Satellite phones were handed out to village heads. A county bulletin said 1,200 homes were damaged and 300 had collapsed outright. Livestock pens were destroyed. Yak herders reported losses.

Officials in Beijing said they were monitoring and had allocated relief funds. The Ministry of Emergency Management said tents, quilts and food were being flown to Nagqu. It warned of landslide risk in the next 48 hours as the ground remained unstable.

Rescue work was still underway at nightfall. Lists of missing were being compiled by hand. The road to the worst-hit township was still not cleared.