Russia: a meteorite falls causing hundreds of injured in the Ural region (videos)

February 15, 2013
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According to a report from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, “About 500 people were injured, three of them seriously, because of the disintegration of a meteorite that hit early Friday in three regions of the Urals area in Russia”.

According to a ministry spokesman: “Hundreds of people suffered were injured because of breaking glass as the blast blew out windows of many buildings in the Chelyabinsk region. The condition of at least three people is serious.”

The state news agency RIA Novosti reported, “The meteorite disintegrating effects hit in six towns in the regions of Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen and in the territory of Kazakhstan. So far the authorities have no conclusive data on whether it was a large meteorite disintegrated before reaching land or many small meteorites.”

The deputy head of Ministry press, Elena Smirnykh, told RIA Novosti “the information verified indicate that it was a meteorite that burned as it approaches the Earth and disintegrated into small fragments.”

The authorities claim that “radiation levels are maintained within normal and Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, the nuclear plants in the area run smoothly.”

The European Space Station (ESA) said that this event is not related to the asteroid 2012 DA14, between 45 and 95 meters in diameter, which is expected at 20.25 pm on Friday, passing close to Earth, about 27,000 kilometers of distance.