More than 200 people were injured when a meteor exploded above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk.
A meteor shower blast that took place above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk led to a shock wave that shattered panes of glass injuring more than 200 people in the area. The local Emergency Ministry confirmed 257 people were injured while nine people had to be hospitalized.
"Over 250 people were injured, three of them seriously," the interior ministry said in a statement to Russian news agencies, adding that damage was recorded in six towns.
Glass broke in high-rise buildings and offices were evacuated and people panicked while they scuffled across the streets to get to a safer place.
"A meteorite disintegrated above the Urals, partially burning up in the lower atmosphere," AFP reported the local office of the national emergencies ministry as saying. More than 80 million trees were felled, radiating out from the center of the blast, but no crater was left.
This incident took place the same day Earth is supposed to experiences its closest encounter with an asteroid, known as 2012 DA14. The distance between the two celestial bodies will be as little as 17,000 miles, reports The News Star. This distance is closer than some of the planet's weather and navigation satellites orbits. Though the encounter will not be visible to the naked eye, the asteroid will be closest to Earth at 1:24 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, the report suggests.
"An object of this size gets relatively this close to Earth every 40 years, but this is by far the closest in a very long time," said Don Wheeler, an associate professor of science at Louisiana Delta Community College.
Sharing details about the asteroid, Wheeler said it will be travelling at a speed of 4.8 miles per second and weighs 130,000 metric tons. However, NASA confirmed that the chances of an impact with Earth are remote so people need not worry.
