Chinese authorities announced that 53 people were killed and 62 others were injured in the earthquake that struck the Tibet region at dawn on Tuesday, in a toll that remains preliminary so far.

According to the Chinese news agency "Xinhua", the authorities said that the earthquake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, shook the northern slopes of the Himalayas in the Tibet region, and caused human losses and shook buildings in Nepal, Bhutan and neighboring India.

For its part, the US Geological Survey reported that the earthquake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake's epicenter was at a depth of 10 km (6 miles) in Tingri, a rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region.

Xinhua said local government officials are contacting nearby towns to assess the impact of the quake and verify losses.

Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are subject to frequent earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.