Was it a meteorite? Tests will determine what killed Indian man

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India meteorite? Man killed by falling object - CNN.com

By Roshni Majumdar and Tim Hume, for CNN
Updated 7:27 AM ET, Mon February 8, 2016

160208115503-tamil-nadu-meteorite-bus-exlarge-169.jpg
The blast from the falling object, which killed a bus driver, also shattered bus windows at the college in India's Tamil Nadu state.

New Delhi (CNN)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.

If the object is confirmed to be a meteorite -- a fragment of a comet or asteroid that has fallen to Earth -- the death would be the first fatality from a meteorite on record, it is believed.

P. K. Senthil Kumari, the police chief in Vellore district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, told CNN that the object struck the grounds of an engineering school at about midday Saturday, making a loud noise and leaving an impact crater about 60 cm (2 feet) deep.

160208115215-tamil-nadu-meteorite-scene-exlarge-169.jpg

Police roped off the impact site at Bharathidasan Engineering College in India's Tamil Nadu state.

The resulting blast killed a 40-year-old named Kamaraj, who worked as a bus driver on the campus of the Bharathidasan Engineering College, the police chief said. Like many in the state, the victim only used one name.

Two gardeners and a student at the college were also injured in the incident, and are receiving treatment at a hospital in Vellore, he said.

The impact shattered the windows of a number of buses on campus, he said.

Meteorite or space junk?

Senthil Kumari said it was yet to be confirmed whether the object that caused the blast was a meteorite, as opposed to falling space junk or some other form of debris.

Police recovered a piece of debris from the collision, which will be analyzed by a scientist from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

"We wait until the investigation is over to confirm if the object was a meteorite," he said.

Tamil Nadu's state government released a statement on the incident Sunday, describing it as a meteorite strike and offering 100,000 rupees ($1471) in compensation to the victim's family.

In 2013, a large meteor exploded over the Russian region of Chelyabinsk, producing a huge flash and shock wave, and showering the territory below with many small meteorites.

The incident left more than 1,000 people injured, but caused no fatalities.
 

Well with 8 billions of people on earth it was just a matter of time.
 

Well with 8 billions of people on earth it was just a matter of time.
I'm not certain it would be the first time.

I have a reference to a meteor-like object which fell into a lake in British Columbia in the 1800's. Bodies from a nearby Native village were found washed into the treetops near the lake.
 

The material shown was clearly oxidized, and could not have fallen recently, were it even a meteorite, which was doubtful. Other reports included a photo of a specimen of the Taza meteorite from Wikipedia!

In fact, the death appears to have been caused by an explosion caused by two discarded/abandoned sticks of gelignite, which was left over from construction site clearance and ignited accidentally by two gardeners burning rubbish nearby. Unknown is why the story was presented as a meteorite in the first place. The local police correctly implicated the accidental explosion. The photo of the deceased clearly did not show a man killed by an impact. Shrapnel from the body turned out to not be meteoritic, and the fragment show resembled slag, not a meteorite. This death was not caused by the fall of a meteorite.....
 

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