A meteorite landed near the international airport in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, on Saturday night, government officials say. Residents reported hearing a loud bang and feeling the impact, which left a crater 12m wide and 5m deep. The meteorite seemed to have broken off an asteroid which was passing close to Earth.
She said international experts had been called in to investigate further. No-one was hurt when it hit the wooded area near the international airport and an air force base. An adviser to Nicaragua’s Institute of Earth Studies (Ineter), Wilfried Strauch, said he was "convinced it was a meteorite" which caused the impact. Experts studying the crater said it was not clear whether the meteorite had disintegrated upon impact or had been blasted into soil.
Locals said they heard a large blast just before midnight local time and reported a burning smell. "We thought it was a bomb because we felt an expansive wave," Jorge Santamaria told Associated Press news agency.