Blast in Tamil Nadu college kills 1, several injured

Indian scientists will examine remains from an object that fell from the sky Saturday, causing a large explosion which killed a man, to determine if it is a meteorite, police say. Thick smoke engulfed the area following the explosion, which created a crater of five feet deep and two feet wide.

Reports revealed that a bus driver – identified only as Kamaraj – was walking in the campus when he was allegedly struck by the meteorite and died. A senior police officer told The Hindu that three other people suffered minor injuries in the same incident.

The powerful explosion also injured three gardeners and shattered window panes, but the students who were attending classes at the time were safe. However, local scientists still have to confirm that a meteorite was responsible for the death.

The meteorite fall caused an explosion.

Witnesses said they did not know what happened, but saw a mysterious object fall from the sky.

S. P. Rajaguru, assistant professor at the Indian Astrophysics Institute in Bangalore, said the rock could be a meteorite but further tests were needed.

APIn this frame grab made from a video done with a dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, Russia, provided by Nasha Gazeta newspaper, on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 a meteorite contrail is seen.

There have been no confirmed human deaths due to meteorite strikes, although there have been a number of interesting close calls, based upon a list kept by International Comet Quarterly.

Meteorites – remnants of asteroids which often hurtle through space but rarely reach Earth – have never killed anybody before, meteor detection website ATLAS said. They look very similar to earthly rocks but have a burnt exterior. The resulting shock damaged thousands of buildings and injured more than 1,000 people.