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The trail of a falling object is seen above a residential
apartment
block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk,
in this still image taken from
video shot on February 15, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/OOO Spetszakaz
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(Reuters) - More
than 500 people were injured when a meteorite shot across the sky and
exploded over central Russia on Friday, sending fireballs crashing to
Earth, shattering windows and damaging buildings.
People heading to work in
Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and
then felt a shockwave according to a Reuters correspondent in the
industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.
A
fireball blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its
wake which could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away in
Yekaterinburg. Car alarms went off, windows shattered and mobile phone
networks were interrupted.
"I was
driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as
if it was day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg
in the Urals Mountains.
"I felt like I was blinded by headlights," he said.
No
fatalities were reported but President Vladimir Putin, who was due to
host Finance Ministry officials from the Group of 20 nations in Moscow,
and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were informed.
A
local ministry official said such incidents were extremely rare and
Friday's events might have been linked to an asteroid the size of an
Olympic swimming pool due to pass Earth at a distance of 27,520 km
(17,100 miles) but this was not confirmed.
Russia's
space agency Roscosmos said the meteorite was travelling at a speed of
30 km (19 miles) per second and that such events were hard to predict.
The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion had caused a sonic
boom.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry
said 514 people had sought medical help, mainly for light injuries
caused by flying glass, and that 112 of those were kept in hospital.
Search groups were set up to look for the remains of the meteorite.
"There
have never been any cases of meteorites breaking up at such a low level
over Russia before," said Yuri Burenko, head of the Chelyabinsk branch
of the Emergencies Ministry.
WINDOWS BREAK, FRAMES BUCKLE
Windows were shattered on Chelyabinsk's central Lenin Street and some of the frames of shop fronts buckled.
A
loud noise, resembling an explosion, rang out at around 9.20 a.m.
(12:20 a.m. ET). The shockwave could be felt in apartment buildings in
the industrial city's center.
"I
was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend," said Andrei, a
local resident who did not give his second name. "Then there was a flash
and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shockwave that
smashed windows."
A wall was damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said there was no environmental threat.
Video of meteor falling to Earth on Friday February 15, 2013 (Live Leak video)
Although
such events are rare, a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area
of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia in 1908, smashing
windows as far as 200 km (125 miles) from the point of impact.
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 what
sounded like a blast had been heard at an altitude of 10,000 meters
(32,800 feet).
The U.S. space
agency NASA has said an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 meters in
diameter, would have an encounter with Earth closer than any asteroid
since scientists began routinely monitoring them about 15 years ago.
Television, weather and communications satellites fly about 500 miles higher. The moon is 14 times farther away.
(Additional
reporting by Natalia Shurmina in Yekaterinburg and Gabriela Baczynska
in Moscow, Writing by Alexei Anishchuk and Timothy Heritage, Editing by
Michael Holden)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorite-idUSBRE91E05Z20130215
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