More than 400 have been injured after a meteor shower rained across the sky above Russia’s Ural Mountains. This caused a sharp explosion and hurt more than 400 people, mostly due to broken glass, on February 15, 2013. The emergency ministry in a statement said that the fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region.
Vadim Kolesnikov, the interior ministry spokesman said that around 102 people had called for medical assistance after the incident. Most of the cases called for treatment from injuries caused due to broken glass. The spokesperson also said that around 600 square meters of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed as well.
Earlier, there was some confusion as to what had happened in the clear sky. Irina Rossius, the spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry said that there was a meteor shower . However, another spokeswoman from the ministry said that the Interfax news agency claimed that it was a single meteorite.
According to an amateur video broadcast on Russian television, an object was seen speeding across the sky at around 9:20 am local time. The meteor had left a white contrail and an intense flash, causing some people to panic and think that it was the end of the world.
