Suspected Meteorite Kills Two in Rajasthan

[Vardoger]

Suspected meteorite kills two in Rajasthan

Jaipur, Feb. 8 (PTI): A suspected meteorite claimed the lives of two nomads and injured five others today at Banchola village in Rajasthan's Bundi district, police said.

It was a blast-like situation and a crater was formed on the earth, they said.

According to fellow nomads or "Banjaras", the victims selling utensils in exchange of old clothes, were sitting in a field when an +ulkapind+ (unknown flying object) hit them around 0930 hrs.

The injured were admitted to hospital, police said.

Senior police and administrative officials have rushed to the spot to ascertain the exact cause of the incident, they said adding a team from forensic science laboratory has also been called.

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[Xanatico]

Wow, I don´t think anyone is supposed to have died from meteor strikes before. But it could of course be space debris.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Are these the first "official" human fatalities?

 

[GNC]

So Lembit Opik was right all along?

 

[ramonmercado]

Could it have been the Chinese testing another Space Weapon?

 

[Mythopoeika]

I believe there have been other fatalities, years ago - but these occurrences are extremely rare.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Update ...

The news reports on this incident variously number the dead at 2 or 3 and the injured at 4 or 5.

It appears that the authorities concluded this incident was caused by soms sort of explosive junk the victims were selling rather than a meteorite.

While the locals believed that it was a meteorite, the police said the blast may have occurred due to the explosive scrap that the nomads had collected.

SOURCE: https://www.news18.com/news/india/meteorite-claims-3-lives-in-rajasthan-258082.html

We know that there was a blast but looking at the crater it does not seem that it happened due to a meteorite,' a Bundi police official told IANS over telephone.
He said the crater was of 8-10 inches in diameter and two inches in depth.

SOURCE: https://forum.cosmoquest.org/archive/index.php/t-53619.html
Attributed to either or both:
earthtimes.org/articles/show/28659.html)
hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200702081740.htm

Both links are dead, and neither is archived at the Wayback Machine.