SHIGATSE, Jan 7 (RTHK) - At least 32 people were killed and another 38 injured after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the northern foothills of the Himalayas near one of Tibet's holiest cities on Tuesday, damaging buildings while sending people running into the streets in neighbouring Nepal and India.

The quake occurred at 9.05am local time in Shigatse, at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre.

It revised the strength of the tremor from its earlier reading of 6.9.

The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, reported the tremor as magnitude 7.1.

By 10am, "multiple aftershocks" had been recorded, with the largest one measuring 4.4 in magnitude, according to state media

Videos went viral on Chinese social media platforms, showing crumbled houses amid the aftermath from the nearby town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.

The quake was also felt in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, some 400 kilometres away.

Residents ran from their houses as their walls shook while there were reports of tremors in the northern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.

The State Council Earthquake Relief Headquarters Office and the Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a level 3 emergency response to the quake, while the local government dispatched over 1,500 people to conduct search and rescue work in the affected areas.

A magnitude 6.8 quake is considered strong and is capable of causing severe damage.

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.

In 2008, a huge quake in Sichuan province killed almost 70,000 people, while a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in 2015 leaving about 9,000 people dead in Nepal's worst ever earthquake.

Photo from Xinhua