Meteorite pulled from Russian lake

Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-tonne chunk of the space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk earlier this year.

The object plunged into Lake Chebarkul in central Russia on 15 February, leaving a 6m-wide hole in the ice.

Scientists say that it is the largest fragment of the meteorite yet found.

More than 1,000 people were injured when a 17m, 10,000-tonne space rock burned up over Central Russia, breaking windows and rocking buildings.

Live footage showed a team pull out a 1.5-metre-long (five-foot-long) rock from the lake after first wrapping it in a special covering and placing it on a metal sheet while it was still underwater.

The fragment was then pulled ashore and placed on top of a scale for weighing, an operation that quickly went wrong.

The rock broke up into at least three large pieces as it was lifted from the ground with the help of levers and ropes.

- BBC.co.uk