As of 2:25 a.m. on Friday, 11 of the injured people were in serious condition, while 21 had sustained minor injuries, Xinhua reported.
Local authorities found at least two injured people in a village near the epicentre. The state broadcaster reported that some houses in villages closest to the epicentre had developed cracks following the tremor.
The earthquake struck a sparsely populated, high-altitude county in Nagqu, northern Tibet, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Data from the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) showed that the average elevation within 5 km of the epicentre was approximately 4,864 metres (15,960 feet). The epicentre was around 400 km from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
Footage released by local state-run media showed residents leaving their homes and seeking shelter outdoors or inside cars parked on the streets. One resident said the strong earthquake woke them from sleep and that they heard their house squeaking as the tremors shook the building.
The CENC said the earthquake was clearly felt across the local area. Following the magnitude 7 tremor, a series of smaller earthquakes measuring around magnitude 3 and 4 were recorded in surrounding regions, according to CENC data.
Local fire and rescue teams have been mobilised and are heading towards the affected region, state media reported, as authorities respond to the damage and casualties caused by the earthquake.
The latest earthquake is the strongest to strike China since January 2024. In 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Yushu in neighbouring Qinghai province, killing at least 2,698 people and leaving nearly 300 others missing.
Reporting by Xiuhao Chen, Yukun Zhang and Liz Lee in Beijing, Shivangi Lahiri and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Timothy Heritage, Rod Nickel and Diti Pujara.
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