Woman 'hit by meteorite'

2004-08-18 11:13

London - Most people would think they were supremely unlucky to be struck by a falling meteorite while out in their back garden. But British great-grandmother Pauline Aguss is just grateful the rock only grazed her arm.

The 76-year-old was hit by a swiftly-falling fragment of rock while hanging out washing in her garden in the county of Suffolk, eastern England, The Sun reported on Wednesday.

If the golf ball-sized fragment is confirmed as originating from space, Aguss will be the first Briton ever known to have been struck by a meteorite, the newspaper said.

Aguss told the newspaper that she had felt a sudden sharp pain in her arm, and her husband found a small chunk of metallic brown rock where she had just been standing.

"I couldn't believe it when Jack found the rock on the grass. I was so relieved it hadn't hit me on the head. I could have been killed," she told the paper.

A spokesperson for the British Astronomical Association said it was "quite possible" the rock concerned was a meteorite, while adding that the chances of being struck were generally "tiny".

- AFP