Published by: World Tibet Network News 97/05/21 08:00 GMT

03:03 a.m. May 17, 1997 Eastern

BEIJING, May 17 (Reuter) - An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the open-ended Richter scale has jolted China's Himalayan region of Tibet but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The tremor struck Baxoi county in eastern Tibet at 7.18 p.m. on Friday (1118 GMT), the news agency said.

The epicentre of the earthquake was a rugged, rural region with poor communications, it said.

It gave no more details.