‘Meteor shower injures 950 in Russia’

A meteor shower raining down on Russia’s Ural Mountains has caused sharp explosions in the sky, wounding at least 950 people.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on Friday that fragments of the meteor fell in the region of Chelyabinsk in the morning, shattered windows and injured at least 950 people including 82 children.

“A meteorite [sic] disintegrated above the Urals, partially burning up in the lower atmosphere… Fragments of the meteorite reached earth, falling in sparsely populated areas in the Chelyabinsk region,” the statement said.

Some 20,000 emergency staff and three aircraft were sent to the region, the ministry added. “No further pieces of the meteor are expected to fall.”

According to reports, the fragments fell near the town of Satka, about 200 kilometers from the regional capital city of Chelyabinsk.

Reports say around 600 square meters of a roof at a factory had fallen down in the region following the incident.