Television footage showed Friday
morning traffic grinding to a quick halt
in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk as a
blinding flash lit up the blue sky,
causing some to huddle in
buildings for safety.
A medical source said that 100
people came to hospitals for medical
treatment, while the emergencies
ministry confirmed that cellular
telephone communications were
temporarily cut.
"A meteorite disintegrated above the
Urals (mountain range in central
Russia), partially burning up in the
lower atmosphere," the local office of
the national emergencies ministry
said in a statement.
"Fragments of the meteorite reached
Earth, falling in sparsely populated
areas in the Chelyabinsk region," it
said.
Officials said a part of the meteorite
fell 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the
town of Satki, itself 100 kilometres
west of the regional centre.
Schools were closed for the day
across the region after the impact
blew out windows of buildings and
temperatures had plunged in central
Russia to -18 degrees Celsius (0
degrees Fahrenheit).
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