Buenos Aires: An explosion wrecked
two homes, a business and several cars, killing a woman and injuring nine people on the outskirts of Argentina's capital.
Early reports by some witnesses that they had seen a ball
of fire fall from the sky around the time of the 2 am explosion caused a sensation, but authorities said later that evidence pointed to an explosion of leaking gas.
Officials said a search by the more than 100 police and
others turned up a canister of natural gas with a poor
connection to a pizza oven.
After the reports of a fireball coming down, the
government dispatched the large number of searchers to check
for radioactivity and any material that might have come from
outer space.
Provincial justice and security minister Ricardo
Casal said experts were "evaluating all theories, from an
explosion to something strange that came from the sky."
But the experts found no evidence of a crater, and NASA
said its satellite that fell to Earth sometime Saturday landed
well clear of South America.
Late in the day, the government said it appeared the blast
was probably caused by a pizza oven's poorly connected gas
canister.
A young man who had claimed he photographed a space object
and gave authorities a picture showing a streak of red light
through the night sky was detained for providing false
testimony, the Argentine news agency Diarios y Noticias said.
The man changed his story under questioning, the report
said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 12:27