Residents of Barrackpore and police are baffled over a strange explosion which rocked the area early yesterday, gouging a crater-like hole in the ground and sending tremors more than a mile away.
Late yesterday, police were trying to determine whether the crater was caused by a bomb blast or a meteorite. Resident Cassandra Mohammed Ali, the sister of national cricketer Gibran Mohammed, said she was at home around 12.48 am when she heard a loud sound on her roof. She said she heard a car slow down in front of their home and within seconds heard a loud blast. The force of the explosion shook the house. "The front glass door shattered and there was a bright light...We ran to the back of the house because we thought the front part of the house was burning down," Mohammed Ali said. "Everyone get scared and when the neighbours came out, we went outside and saw this crater-like hole on the ground."
Mohammed Ali said boulders stacked in their front yard were flung hundreds of feet away. The soil around the hole was greyish in colour and gave off a strong gaseous smell, she said. Mohammed Ali said, the grass around the hole had a burnt look. "We do not know what caused this...We don't know if someone planted a bomb here," she said. "Barrackpore is a quiet area and we cannot think of why someone would do this." She also said that the theory of a meteorite strike was also possible as she heard the pattering sound on the roof before the blast. "The meteorite is a possibility...pellet-like indentations were also seen on the concrete wall of the house as far as 75 feet high as well as on a steel door."
Another resident Suresh Maharaj, who lives quarter mile away from the blast, said someone might have planted dynamite in the ground to trigger the blast. He said: "I worked in seismic and I have seen them use dynamite. They could break down the concentration of the dynamite to do this. But we don't know for sure." His neighbour Salisha Ramkissoon said the blast cut off her telephone service. She said her grandson Adrian Jaggernath woke up with sound of the explosion and started screaming. "We are all scared here and we do not know what caused this...It was very frightening," Ramkissoon said.
She said her daughter saw a bright light after the explosion. Police said yesterday that the explosion was baffling as they found no evidence or remnants of an explosive device.
What an expert says
Head of the Physics Department of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Dr Shirin Haque, does not rule out that the crater may have been caused by a meteor. "It is true that Earth was passing through the remnants of a comet giving rise to the Perseids meteor shower which peaked around August 12," she said. Activity began by the end of July and is expected to continue to around 25 August."
Dr Haque who viewed photographs of the crater said, "The particles that planet Earth passes through in the remnant dusty trail of a comet are around the size of sand grains with the larger ones being the size of peas and marbles. "Typically, these particles burn up in our atmosphere 60 to 80 miles up in the atmosphere...This is what appears as 'shooting stars' or the meteor shower," she said. While it is highly unlikely that that an impact crater can be formed by these meteors, it is not impossible." She explained: "Craters are usually formed by pieces of rocks from asteroids impacting Earth. It is possible that no evidence of the impactor is found as it can be vaporised in the impact." However, she said further investigations would be required to rule out a meteor impact for sure.
