By JAMES MARSON
A meteorite plunged to earth near Chelyabinsk, over 900 miles east of Moscow. WSJ's Greg White reports that hundreds were injured by the explosion but there was no major destruction. Photo: AP
MOSCOW—A flaming meteorite plunged to earth in Russia's Ural Mountains Friday, smashing windows and injuring around 500 people.
Amateur videos broadcast on state television showed an object streaking across the sky around 9:20 a.m. local time before bursting into a fireball. Residents in the city of Chelyabinsk, the largest in the affected region, described a shock wave from the meteorite that blew in doors and smashed glass.
"There was a bright flash and three or four seconds later the building shook as if from an explosion," said a woman who answered the phone at the city administration but declined to give her name. "Many people were cut by glass. We didn't understand what was happening. We thought an airplane had come down."
"There's no major destruction," Chelyabinsk regional Governor Mikhail Yuyevich wrote on his blog. "The main task now is to maintain heat in the apartments and offices where the glass was smashed."
The Emergency Situations Ministry said around 500 people requested medical attention, mostly for cuts. Roughly 100 people were hospitalized with injuries. Around 300 buildings were damaged by the blast, which blew a hole in the walls of a metals factory in Chelyabinsk, approximately 1,500 kilometers east of Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the emergency situations minister to provide help for those affected.
Search teams are looking for the remains of the asteroid. State television showed one burning crater, saying it could be the landing site of the meteorite.
VIDEO HERE:
PHOTO SLIDES
[NAT GEO NEWS] Local authorities stand near the possible landing zone for the meteorite hited Russia last Friday, a 20-foot hole on a frozen lake in in the Ural Mountains, Russia.
Photograph from Chelyabinsk Region Police Department/AFP/Getty Images
Photograph from Chelyabinsk Region Police Department/AFP/Getty Images
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special thanks to: online.wsj.com
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