Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery.
A magnitude 6.8 quake is considered strong and is capable of causing severe damage.
Local government officials were liaising with nearby towns to gauge the impact of the quake and check for casualties, Xinhua reported.
Nepalese people stand after rushing out of their homes in Kathmandu.Credit: AP
Tremors were also felt in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu some 400km away, where residents ran from their houses.
The epicentre was 80km north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers and trekkers.
Winter is not a popular season for climbers and hikers in Nepal, with a German climber the lone mountaineer with a permit to climb Mount Everest. He had already left the base camp after failing to reach the summit, Lilathar Awasthi, a Department of Tourism official, said.
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said tremors were felt in seven hill districts bordering Tibet.
Rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of the earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, south-western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.Credit: AP
“So far we have not received any information of any loss of life and property,” spokesman Dizan Bhattarai told Reuters. “We have mobilised police, security forces and local authorities to collection information,” he said.
Many villages in the Nepalese border area, which are sparsely populated, are remote and can only be reached by foot.
“We felt a very strong earthquake. So far we have not received any report of injuries or physical loss,” said Anoj Raj Ghimire, chief district officer of Solukhumbu district in Nepal, at the foot of Mount Everest.
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“We have mobilised police and other security forces as well as locals to collect information about the damage,” he added.
The quake also jolted Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and in the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
South-western parts of China, Nepal and Northern India are frequently hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
A huge quake in China’s Sichuan province in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people, while a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in 2015, killing about 9000 people and injuring thousands in Nepal’s worst ever earthquake.
Reuters, AP
