Meteorites impacting across multiple cities in Russia’s Ural Mountains, mainly over the sparsely populated city of Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow, on Friday morning have damaged buildings and injured hundreds. Currently 725 people are being treated for minor & major injuries.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers, local newspaper Znak reports quoting a source in the military.
The original object was over 10 tons before entering Earth’s atmosphere according to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Russian Army is reporting three meteorite debris impact sites have been located and identified.
There are reports that cell phone service is either out or working intermittently.
Is this part of the larger DA14 Asteroid scheduled to make a recording breaking pass of the Earth? Asteroid DA14 will make it’s closest pass of the Earth at 1:25pm CST today (Feb. 15). Russian Space authorities are warning other meteors and objects are likely in the next few hours.
More updates as we get them.
Live Meteor Updates from RT News:
http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-meteorite-asteroid-chelyabinsk-291/
RAW footage of some of the meteors:
Early reports has it as a meteor shower and only 3 cities. Six cities/area are now reported to have been hit: