MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) – Buildings across Russia's Chelyabinsk Region were damaged by falling meteorite particles and the shock waves and sonic booms caused by them, Russian officials said on Friday morning.
A roof and wall partly collapsed at a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk Region after it was struck by the shock wave from the meteorite, the Interior Ministry reported. The officials did not specify which factory it was.
The factory has continued working normally despite the damage, the regional government said in an online statement.
South Ural State University has cancelled classes for at least two days due to damage to its buildings.
“The roof did not collapse, but the damage is quite significant. The windows are broken, some of them were blown in with their frames,” a university spokeswoman told RIA Novosti. Some ceiling tiles also fell down, she added.
Windows were also broken in at least a dozen schools and three hospitals, the Emergencies Ministry reported. The roof of a Chelyabinsk ice rink has also been damaged.
The Yuzhnouralskaya district power station had 10 percent of its windows broken but there was no effect on its operations, Russian energy supplier Inter RAO reported.
Russia's nuclear agency, Rosatom, said its facilities across the affected regions were functioning normally. The Defense Ministry also said none of its property had been damaged.
Some 400 people were injured in the Chelyabinsk region alone, mainly due to cuts from flying glass. The meteorite shower was witnessed in at least three Russian regions - Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen - as well as northern area of neighboring Kazakhstan early on Friday morning.
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