Meteor shower explodes in central Russia and Urals injuring hundreds - At least 112 people have been seriously hurt among the 1100 injured, according to the Interior Ministry. About 200 children who had been at schools were among the hurt from flying glass and debris.
While NASA estimated the meteor was only about the size of a bus and weighed an estimated 7000 tons, the fireball it produced was dramatic.
The space agency estimates the blast over Chelyabinsk occurred at about 14-20 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and that the energy released was equivalent to a 300-kiloton explosion,
Video shot by startled residents of the city of Chelyabinsk showed its streaming contrails as it arced toward the horizon just after sunrise, looking like something from a world-ending science-fiction movie.
Some feared a plane was about to fall out of the sky while others thought the world was ending.
The terrifying sight was caught in a series of astonishing pictures by residents of central Russia as they headed to work on Friday.
Footage taken by dashcams – dashboard cameras common in the cars of Russians in case of accidents on winter roads or disputes with corrupt traffic police – mean the supersonic blaze has been captured, and shared with the world, in unprecedented detail.
Some believed the world was ending and video footage posted online showed screaming youngsters at a school where corridors were littered with broken glass.
Gulnara Dudka, a resident of Chelyabinsk, 1500km east of Moscow and the biggest city in the affected region, said: "I really thought it was doomsday."
Source: news.com.au
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