BREAKING NEWS: Large Meteorite raked Havoc in Russian Ural City, Hundreds Injured

(nsnbc , RT & Agencies)  15.02.2013. Russia Today reports that Russia´s Ural mountains region has been rocketed by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave, so RT, damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows in the frostbitten city of Chelyabinsk.

Chelyabinsk meteorite. Youtube shot from user G. Grim

The regions governor, Mikhail Yurevich, informed RIA Novosti, that about 950 people have been seeking medical help in Chelyabinsk alone. More than 150 children are among the injured. many of the injuries were caused by the glass from shattered windows and by collapsing walls.

The larger than normal and early “drop” from the meteor “shower”, which astronomers are expecting tonight, seems to have broken into several parts before impacting on the ground.

RT reports, that army units found three impact debris sites. Two of them are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found about 80 km further to the northwest, near Zlatoust. The greatest fragment measures about six meters in diameter. Military servicemen at the impact site controlled the area for radiation but could not find radiation levels higher than normal.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos stated, that the meteorite was of non-technological origin and that it qualifies as a meteorite. The rock that initiated tonights meteor shower with a “bang” has according to Roskosmos reached a speed of 30 kilometers per second.

According to RT, the Russian Academy of Sciences stated that the object had a weight of about 10 tons before entering Earth´s atmosphere. The space-rocks could have caused even more damage, had they fallen into a densely populated area.

The stratospheric explosion that was caused when the object entered Earth´s stratosphere with a speed of 30 km per second, and which caused windows to shatter and some walls and buildings to collapse, has caused wide-spread initial panic, until the cause of the blast became known. Many of the older inhabitants of the region feared a nuclear war, others feared an explosion in a nuclear facility.

The official website of Chelyabinsk administration said that nearly 3000 buildings have been damaged to varying degree, including 34 medical facilities and 361 schools. Police and emergency authorities in the region remain on high alert. Emergency services are aiding the population with shelter. An official of Chelyabinsk administration said that the equivalent to 100,000 m2 of windows have been shattered, leaving thousands vulnerable to the biting Russian winter-frost.