Meteorite Hits Cambodia, Sparks Fires and Prayers
January 26, 2005
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A 10 pound meteorite which landed in a former Khmer
Rouge zone of northwest Cambodia started fires across rice fields and prayers
from villagers who saw it as a divine omen.
"Some farmers are angry with the rock because it caused fires and destroyed
several hundred hectares of their paddy fields," said Sok Sareth, police
chief of Banteay Meanchey province, around 200 miles northwest of the capital,
Phnom Penh.
"But others asked the police to leave it where it landed and put it on
shrine," he told Reuters on Wednesday.
The black lump of celestial rock sent villagers scurrying for cover when it
thumped into the ground in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation on Monday
morning.
"It made a noise like a bomb exploding," Sok Sareth said. "It's a
good thing it didn't land in the village or people could have been killed."
Pictures of the meteorite were splashed across newspapers in the capital, but
the item itself has been carried away by police pending scientific analysis.
Initial investigations by explosives experts still clearing the bombs and mines
left behind from Cambodia's years of civil war against Pol Pot's guerrillas have
not yielded many results.
"I asked my friend who works as deminer, but he has no idea what the rock
is," Sok Sareth said.
SOURCE: Reuters