The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake was in China, but buildings shook in Kathmandu, more than 200 kilometres away, with officials saying they were checking for damage.

Areas around Lobuche in Nepal in the high mountains near Mount Everest were also rattled by the tremors and a series of aftershocks.

"It shook quite strongly here, everyone is awake, but we don't know about any damages yet," said government official Jagat Prasad Bhusal in Nepal's Namche region, which lies nearer to Everest.

Nepal lies on a major geological faultline where the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence.

In 2015, nearly 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.