Hundreds ill after Peru 'toxic meteor crash'
By Sally Peck
19/09/2007

Hundreds of people have suffered headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems after an object from space - believed to be a meteorite - crashed in southern Peru.

Eyewitnesses watched a fiery ball fall from the sky and smash into the remote Andean plain near the Bolivian border on Saturday, local media reported.

When villagers went to investigate, they encountered fetid, noxious gases, according to local health officials.

Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the southern state of Puno, 800 miles south of Lima, said at least 200 people had become ill after inhaling "toxic" fumes emanating from the resulting crater.the rest/photo