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Friday, February 15, 2013

Meteor shower sows panic in central Russia


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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