Villagers fall ill after fireball hits Peru
Radio reports that fumes from meteorite crater have sickened 600
Peru's foul-smelling meteorite
Sept. 18: A foul-smelling meteorite is causing a stink in Peru. Msnbc.com's Kevin Flynn reports.
MSNBC.com
Updated: 4:51 p.m. ET Sept 18, 2007
A fireball fell from the sky and slammed into southern Peru over the weekend, creating a huge crater that emitted a sickeningly smelly gas, local authorities said. More than 600 villagers fell ill, the Peruvian radio network RPP reported Tuesday.
Video reports from the scene, near the remote Andean village of Carancas along Peru's border with Bolivia, showed what appeared to be a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide), 20-foot-deep (6-meter-deep) impact crater with a bubbling pool of water at the bottom.
Authorities said that the crater was made Saturday by a falling meteorite. Agence France Presse quoted a local official, Marco Limache, as saying that "boiling water started coming out of the crater, and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby."
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