Fireball not a meteorite, but explosives, claims experts

The mysterious fireball which fell in Jadrangal village here, injuring two women, was not a "meteorite", but "low intensity explosives", the state forensic experts claimed today.
"It was a low intensity explosive which contained radicals of Barium Nitrate, Aluminium and Iron Oxide, normally used in incendiary projectiles," Dr Arun Sharma, Director, Himachal Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory told reporters here.
In a first-of-its-kind incident, two women sustained minor injuries as the explosives fell from the sky on the village on March 21.
Two women were doing some household work when the fireball hit the surface and some of its parts fell on the women after splitting following which they sustained burn injuries on arms and back.

The rumours of it being a meteorite started spreading soon after the incident.
Later, Sharma along with Dr N P Dubey, Assistant Director and Dr Vijay Kumar (Chemistry and Toxicology division) from Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL) visited the spot and collected grey ash and burnt pieces of rubber like material from four different spots as physical evidences.
It was sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory at Junga in Shimla for further analysis.
"The material was examined through X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and proved to be a projectile. Such kinds of projectiles are prohibited for general public. The effective range of the projectile could be around 350 yards," Naseeb Singh Patial, Scientific Officer, Physics and Ballistics division of SFSL Junga said.