HONG KONG — A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck near one of Tibet’s most sacred cities on Tuesday, leaving at least 32 people dead, according to Chinese state media.

The quake, recorded just after 9 a.m. local time (8 p.m. ET Monday), occurred at a depth of nearly 6 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. Chinese authorities measured the tremor at a magnitude of 6.8.

The epicenter was located in Dingri County, Shigatse, a mountainous region in western China bordering Nepal. Shigatse, situated approximately 240 miles from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, is home to the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency confirmed the death toll, reporting that many houses near the epicenter had collapsed, leaving some residents trapped.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, about 6,900 people reside in over two dozen villages within a 12-mile radius of the quake’s epicenter. Nearly 1,500 fire and rescue personnel have been dispatched to the region, although the full scale of the disaster is still being evaluated.

Tremors from the quake were felt as far away as Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, located roughly 250 miles from the epicenter. While no damage was immediately reported there, the tremors awakened residents in the early hours.

The Himalayan region, located along a fault line between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, is highly earthquake-prone. Over the past century, 10 earthquakes with magnitudes of 6 or higher have been recorded within 150 miles of Tuesday’s epicenter, according to the USGS.

Notably, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in southwestern China claimed nearly 70,000 lives, while a 7.8-magnitude quake in Nepal in 2015 killed almost 9,000 people and caused extensive damage to nearly a million structures, marking it as one of the most devastating earthquakes in the country’s history.