(Vatican Radio) A meteor with the power of an atomic bomb hit central Russia Friday,
injuring more than 750 people and causing damage to buildings across the Ural Mountains.
At least three of those injured in Friday's blast are in critical condition, though
no deaths have been reported. Russians filmed how the Ural Mountain city of Chelyabinsk, was
first treated to a spectacular, fast-growing light and fire ball, before it was rocked
by a massive blast from space. The Russian Academy of Sciences said a meteor of about
10 tons entered the Earth's atmosphere at a supersonic speed of at least 54,000 kilometres
per hour and shattered between 30 and 50 kilometres above ground. The meteor deeply
frightened thousands, with some elderly women reportedly declaring the world was coming
to an end.
Its impact caused widespread damage to homes and other buildings,
injuring hundreds.
Surgeon Vladimir Basmannikov was among those struggling
to treat the patients.
“The wounds that people have are mainly cuts and
bruises, due to windows and window frames breaking and flying around," he said. "And
you can see how many people are here. We’ve already treated 60 or 70, and we still
have a corridor full of people.”
Experts say meteors often cause sonic booms
when they enter the atmosphere because they are travelling much faster than the speed
of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are rare.
It is thought
another meteor hit Russia's Siberia region over 100 years ago.
Friday's spectacle
came less than a day before an asteroid, the size of an Olympic swimming pool, is
to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth, but the European Space
Agency claimed there was no connection.