At least 16 people have been killed and 76 injured after a magnitude-7 earthquake hit the Tibet region on Thursday evening, collapsing hundreds of homes in the northern regional city of Nagqu, official media said.

Search and rescue efforts continued following the collapse of at least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds, the Nagqu media office said, citing city government officials.

The US Geological Survey said the quake occurred at 10.33pm local time, with its epicentre 191km (119 miles) east-northeast of Nagqu, in a sparsely populated, high-altitude area of northern Tibet. It put the earthquake’s depth at 18km (11 miles).

Emergency services personnel coordinate rescue efforts following an earthquake in Nagqu, Tibet (Reuters)

The US agency recorded at least seven aftershocks with magnitude between 4.3 and 5.2, all of them with a depth of 10km (6 miles) , according to its website.

By Friday afternoon, at least 76 people were confirmed injured, 11 of them seriously, Xinhua news agency reported.…