­­­­­A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia yesterday, sending fireballs crashing to earth which shattered windows and damaged buildings, injuring more than 1,000 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 kilometres per second, according to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200 kilometres away.

Car alarms went off, windows broke and mobile phone networks were interrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteor explosion had caused a sonic boom.

“I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it was day,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

“I felt like I was blinded by headlights,” he said.

The meteor, which weighed about 10 tonnes and may have been made of iron, entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia’s Academy of Sciences.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most by shards of glass.

The region of Chelyabinsk has long been a hub for the Russian military and defence industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned. A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteor storms were extremely rare and Friday’s incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.

But an astronomer at Russia’s Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, poured doubt on that report. He said there was no evidence to support the theory that the meteor had travelled with the asteroid or had broken off from it.

The European Space Agency, on its Twitter microblog, also said its experts had confirmed there was no link.

The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorites however had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said some 300 buildings had been affected.

One piece of meteorite broke through the ice of nearby Cherbakul Lake, leaving a hole several metres wide.

Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.

“Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!” one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that yesterday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles (€37).

The blast at around 9.20am shattered windows on Chelyabinsk’s central Lenin Street and some of the frames of shop fronts buckled. The shockwave could be felt in apartment buildings in the city’s centre.

“I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend,” said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. “Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shockwave that smashed windows.”

Chelyabinsk city authorities urged people to stay indoors unless they needed to pick up their children from schools and kindergartens. They said what sounded like a blast had been heard at an altitude of 10,000 metres.

A wall was damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said there was no environmental threat.

The meteor struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 metres in diameter, was due to pass closer to earth than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring them about 15 years ago.

The small asteroid was expected to pass at a distance of 27,520 kilometres from earth last night.