A plunging meteor exploded with a blinding flash above central Russia on Friday, sowing panic as the hurtling space debris set off a shockwave that smashed windows and hurt over 950people

A plunging meteor exploded with a blinding flash above central Russia on Friday, sowing panic as the hurtling space debris set off a shockwave that smashed windows and hurt over 950 people, regional governor said. 

The extraordinary event brought morning traffic to a sudden halt in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk as shocked drivers stopped to watch the falling meteor partially burning up in the lower atmosphere and light up the sky.
  
The emergencies ministry earlier said 474 people were wounded, 14 of them seriously, by the damage caused mainly to window pains by shockwave in Chelyabinsk and other towns in the Urals. Mobile communications were temporarily cut.
  
It was not clear if the meteor's entry into the atmosphere was linked to the asteroid 2012 DA 14 which is expected to pass about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometres) above the Earth later Friday in an unusually close approach. "At 0920 (0320 GMT) an object was observed above Chelyabinsk which flew by at great speed and left a trail behind. Within two minutes there were two bangs," regional emergencies official Yuri Burenko said in a statement.
  
"The shockwave broke glass in Chelyabinsk and a number of other towns in the region," he said. The office of the local governor said in a statement that a meteorite had fallen into a lake outside the town of Chebakul in the Chelyabinsk region. This was not confirmed by federal officials, who insisted any fragments were yet to be found.
  
There were no reports that any locals had been hurt directly by a falling piece of meteorite. The defense ministry meanwhile said it had sent soldiers "to the sites of impact", without giving further details.