Twenty-three houses of Himali Rural Municipality in Bajura district collapsed when three consecutive earthquakes rattled the district from Thursday night to Friday morning.

Ward chairman of Himali Rural Municiplaity-2 Rana Bahadur Budha informed that 23 houses of the ward completely collapsed in the quake.

He said that the houses, which had developed cracks in the earthquake of January 24 this year, collapsed. A woman and 65 goats were killed in the quake of January 24 in the district.

However, police said they were yet to receive the details of the damages.

According to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre, Bajura was the epicentre of three earthquakes-- 11.58 pm on Thursday and 1.30 am and 9.25 am on Friday. The first quake measured 4.9 on the Richter local magnitude (ML) scale, the second one measured 5.1 and the latest one was 4.1. Senior seismologist Lok Bijaya Adhikari told The Rising Nepal that all three tremors had Dahakot as their epicentre.

The quake was felt in Bajura as well as neighbouring Bajhang, Achham and other hilly districts of Sudurpashchim and Karnali provinces.

In addition to Thursday's and Friday's jolts, five earthquakes have struck Bajura in the past three months. On January 24, the district was the epicentre of 5.9-magnitude earthquake. Similarly, on January 25, it was shaken by 4.1-maginitude one. On February 22, it recorded a 5.2 ML quake, on March 26, a 4.3 ML one and on Sunday, April 23, a 4.1 ML one.

Source: The Rising Nepal