BEIJING, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit a remote and sparsely inhabited part of the Tibetan plateau in western China on Wednesday, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The tremor struck at 4:26 p.m. Beijing time some 100 km (60 miles) east of Gerze county in Ngari prefecture, Xinhua said, quoting the China Seismological Monitoring Network.

"The area has an altitude of more than 4,000 metres and has very few residents," it said. "There have been no reports of casualties." (Reporting by Guo Shipeng; editing by Roger Crabb)

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