The burning rocks damaged buildings and shook the ground as they crashed into six towns in the Chelyabinsk region, located in an area of the Urals some 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow.
The Interior Ministry said ten children were among the injured, according to the Interfax news agency. All schools and kindergartens in Chelyabinsk have been closed for the day.
Authorities said the damage could have been far worse had the meteorite fragments not fallen in such a sparsely populated area.//DPA