Still from amateur video of “meteorite rain” by Fed Potapow
More than 400 people in the Russian region of Chelyabinsk have been injured by fragments of a meteorite showering down in the sparsely populated area.
The majority of the injuries are apparently minor and resulted from the broken glass, with the impact of the fragments shattering windows. A 600 metre-squared roof of a local zinc factory also collapsed after an impact.
Russian emergency services have been slightly confused as to whether the shower of rocks from space were fragments of a single meteorite or a number of meteorites, but they are certain the impacts were not from aircraft. Officials are beginning to piece together what happened and a blast at an altitude of 10,000m implies the impacts were “meteorite rain” after the explosion of a single source.
There are a number of amateur videos of the meteorite shower:
Here you can see the shockwaves affecting nearby buildings:
