Ammon News - A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, killing at least 53 people and shaking buildings in neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan and India.

The quake hit at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT), with its epicentre located in Tingri, a rural Chinese county known as the northern gateway to the Everest region, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. The U.S. Geological Service put the quake's magnitude at 7.1.

At least 53 people had been killed and 62 injured on the Tibetan side, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported. Reuters