An Indian believed first to be killed by meteorite

VELLORE (Web Desk) – A bus driver is believed to be the first human being killed by meteorite in a southern college campus, Vellore.

Mysterious explosion took place on Saturday in Vellore, a city in the south Indian state of Tamil, authorities confirmed as a meteorite impact, RT reported.

“A mishap occurred yesterday when a meteorite fell in the campus of a private engineering college in Vellore district's K Pantharappalli village,” Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said. 

A bus driver who was walking in the area was struck by the meteorite and killed. The victim, named only as Kamaraj was reportedly thrown 10 feet into the air by the impact, and declared dead once he was transferred to hospital.

The impact also injured three people and nearby buses and buildings. Witnesses said they saw a mysterious object fall from the sky.



While the government initially suspected that the driver had been killed in a bomb blast, forensic scientists could not find traces of explosives. Instead, authorities said that they have recovered a piece of a meteorite, in a two foot deep crater near a water tank where the incident happened.

Saturday’s death may become the first registered death from meteorite, as according to calculations by astronomer Alan Harris the person’s odds of being killed by a celestial body impact during lifetime are about 1 in 700,000.