Thousands of villagers in northwest China’s Gansu province were combing the hills in search of an unidentified flying object believed to be large meteorite, state media said on Wednesday.
The object is thought to have hit the rural suburbs, about 60km from downtown Lanzhou on Saturday night, causing a loud explosion recorded by the Gansu Provincial Seismology Bureau, the China Daily said.
Elderly people and young children alike in Lanzhou city’s Yuzhong county amassed on Tuesday and scattered themselves in the hills in search of what experts think could be a one tonne object, the Beijing News said.
Three large silver-coloured stones that are believed to be fragments from the meteorite were found. One farmer was pictured in the China Daily holding one of the fragments.
Enthusiasts from elsewhere in the country, including the former British colony Hong Kong, were heading to Lanzhou to join the search, the reports said.
Experts were quoted as saying it was important to find the meteorite as soon as possible before its properties change with the earth’s environment as it can reveal important clues about the solar system. – AFP
