A hail of meteorite fragments landed in a vast swath of western Siberia Friday, causing injuries to more than 700 people, emergency officials in Russia said.
The fragments came down after a boom felt in three regions of Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in the Chelyabinsk region as a safety precaution and about 20,000 emergency response workers were called out.
Early reports indicated most of the injuries were caused by broken glass and flying objects.
Russia's national space agency, Roscosmos, confirmed that the strike involved one large meteorite and not several smaller ones.