Russia cleans up after meteor blast

Only small objects found

Search teams said they had found small objects up to about 1 cm (half-an-inch) wide that might be fragments of a meteorite, but no larger pieces.    

The Chelyabinsk regional governor said the strike caused about 1 billion roubles ($33 million) worth of damage.

A man repairs the window of a sports hall damaged by a shockwave from a meteor in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk Feb 16, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Life in the city had largely returned to normal by Saturday although 50 people were still in hospital. Officials said more than 1,200 people were injured, mostly by flying glass.

Repair work had to be done quickly because of the freezing temperatures, which sank close to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) at night.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov inspected the damage after President Vladimir Putin sent him to the region.

His ministry is under pressure to clean up fast following criticism over the failure to issue warnings in time before fatal flooding in southern Russia last summer and over its handling of forest fires in 2010.

Putin will also want to avoid a repeat of the criticism that he faced over his slow reaction to incidents early in his first term as president, such as the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000 which killed all 118 people on board. ($1 = 30.1365 Russian roubles)

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