MOSCOW: Russian police are investigating claims that fragments of a meteorite that struck Chelyabinsk city in Central Urals last Friday are being sold online, Xinhua news agency quoted local media reports.
“Information on the Internet about sale of the meteorite’s pieces has been studied and a decision will be made upon completion of the investigation,” said Angela Chirkova, spokeswoman for the Chelyabinsk Interior Department.
Last Friday, a meteorite exploded over the Urals Region, smashing windows and damaging thousands of buildings around Chelyabinsk.
Some 1,200 people including more than 200 children were injured mainly by the shards of glass, with 50 people hospitalised and two people in grave condition.
Some websites have reportedly put up advertisements offering meteorite pieces for sale, with prices ranging from 100 to 1,000 rubles each (about US$3 to US$33). The vendors claimed they had collected small rocks from the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant site which had been slightly damaged by the meteorite’s blast wave.
Russian scientists said Monday they have found some pieces of the meteorite, which broke into seven pieces, one of which fell into Lake Chebarkul about 150km away from Chelyabinsk.
But some scientists said that no large remnants could exist as the meteorite was composed mainly of ice, which had almost completely evaporated during its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. — Bernama