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| Meteorite explosion over Russia injures hundreds | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
Russian region of Chelyabinsk, reportedly injuring around | A meteorite has flared spectacularly in the sky and exploded over the Russian region of Chelyabinsk, reportedly injuring around 400 people. |
Chelyabinsk region, the | Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the emergency ministry said in a statement. |
called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions. | An interior ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 102 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions. |
| Kolsenikov also said about 600 sq metres (6,500 sq ft) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed. | |
| Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. Emergency ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite. | |
| "It was definitely not a plane," an emergency official told Reuters. "We are gathering the bits of information and have no data on the casualties so far." | |
| A witness in Chelyabinsk reported hearing a huge blast early in the morning and feeling a shockwave in a 19-storey building in the town centre. | |
| The sounds of car alarms and breaking windows could be heard in the area, the witness said, and mobile phones were working intermittently. "Preliminary indications are that it was a meteorite rain," an emergency official told RIA-Novosti. "We have information about a blast at 10,000-metre altitude. It is being verified." | |
| "I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it was day," said Viktor Prokofiev, a 36-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals mountains. | |
| "I felt like I was blinded by headlights," he told Reuters. | |
| No deaths were reported but President Vladimir Putin, who was due to host finance ministry officials from the G20 nations in Moscow, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were quickly informed. | |
| Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 am local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash. | |
| The emergencies ministry described Friday's events as a "meteor shower in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic. | |
| Chelyabinsk city authorities urged people to stay indoors unless they needed to pick up their children from schools and kindergartens. They said a blast had been heard at an altitude of 10,000 metres (32,800 feet), apparently signalling it occurred when the meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere. | |
| In 1908 a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia in what became known as the Tunguska event. |