Another earthquake at the dead of night, felt in Panchagarh

A second earthquake has been felt in the country within the span of three days. This time the epicenter of the earthquake was outside Bangladesh, in Kodari area of Nepal.

Although it was far away from Bangladesh, the earthquake was felt in the northernmost district, Panchagarh. The earthquake was felt there at 3:06 am early on Friday.

Earlier, an earthquake was felt in Sylhet after midnight last Wednesday while another earthquake was felt in different parts of the country including the capital Dhaka last Tuesday.

Rubayet Kabir, in charge of the Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre at the meteorological department, told Prothom Alo that the tremor was recorded at 3:06 am. Its epicenter was in Kodari area of Nepal. The magnitude of the earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale. It is considered a medium-sized earthquake.

Rubayet Kabir said that the distance between Dhaka and the epicenter of the earthquake is 630 kilometers. So, the possibility of an earthquake being felt in the country was low.

Officer-in-charge of the Tentulia Meteorological Observatory, Jitendra Nath Roy, told Prothom Alo over cellphone that many people panicked after they felt the earthquake in the middle of the night. However, there have been no reports of damage from any area till this morning.

Many people in Panchagarh city panicked after feeling the earthquake. Many people woke up from sleep and ran out of their houses. However, no damages have been reported anywhere in this incident.

Earlier, an earthquake was felt at 2:55:37 am last Wednesday (26 February). It had originated from Morigaon area in the Indian state of Assam. The magnitude of this earthquake was 5.3 on the Richter scale. It too is considered a medium-sized earthquake.

Before that another earthquake was felt in various parts of the country including the capital Dhaka at 6:40:25 am on Tuesday. The magnitude of this quake was 5.1 on the Richter scale. It was a medium-sized earthquake as well.

The epicenter of this earthquake was the Bay of Bengal adjacent to Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha. So, it affected the coastal districts more. The epicenter was 501 kilometers away from Bangladesh.