PHOTOS: Meteorite hits Russia, hundreds injured

(AP) — A meteor exploded Friday over Russia's Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring more than 750 people.

The spectacle deeply frightened thousands, with some elderly women declaring the world was coming to an end.

Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor - estimated to be about 10 tons - entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph or 33,000 mph and shattered about 30-50 kilometers or 18-32 miles above the ground.

It released the energy of several kilotons above the Chelyabinsk region, the academy said.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9.20 a.m. local time, just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

"We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The explosions broke an estimated 100,000 square meters or more than 1 million square feet of glass, city officials said.

The city administration said 758 people sought medical care after the explosions and most were injured by shards of glass.

Athletes at a city sports arena were among those cut up by the flying glass.

It was not immediately clear if any people were struck by space fragments.

City officials said 3,000 buildings in the city were damaged by the shock wave, including a zinc factory where part of the roof collapsed.

Small pieces of space debris — usually parts of comets or asteroids — that are on a collision course with the Earth are called meteoroids. They become meteors when they enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Such meteor falls are rare but one is thought to have devastated an area in Siberia in 1908.

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