Meteor Shower Hits Russia: Wreaks Havoc, Injuring up to 500 People [VIDEO]

I'm pretty sure I won't be standing outside gazing at  beautiful meteor showers anymore.  Not after this breaking story.

According to multiple sources, Russia has been hit by a meteor shower, causing  explosions and reportedly injuring more than 500 people.  The meteor streaked across the sky early this morning with fragments of the meteor falling in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 400 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions. At least three had been hospitalized in serious condition. Kolsenikov also said about 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

Things are a little frenzied right now so reports are conflicting on what exactly. It’s not clear if it was a meteor shower or one single meteor, but according to Russia Today, there’s speculation that the apparent meteor explosion could be somehow related to the upcoming flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered in February of last year and is being closely tracked by NASA and astronomers around the world. The asteroid is about half the size of a football field, but NASA says it won’t be visible to the naked eye when it flies by today.