KATHMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale rattled a remote village in midwestern  Nepal Saturday but there was no immediate word of damage to life or property, an official said.

 National Seismological Center spokesman Madhav Raj Pandey said the epicenter of the tremors that occurred at 9:49 a.m.  (11:04 p.m. EST Friday) was at Rugha village in Rukum district in the Himalayan foothills of midwestern Nepal.

 Rugha, about 280 miles west of the national capital, Kathmandu, is a sparsely populated remote village with poor  communications.