In Mazsalaca, Latvia on Sunday, residents identified a large unidentified flaming object from the sky and crashed to form a large crater. However, officials are calling it a giant hoax.
A small Latvian town has become famous overnight and has made the UFO proponents excited for a brief moment as an unidentified flaming object came from space and made a large crater covered with flames. Initially, according to
The Sun, experts believed it to be a meteorite but after a close inspection it was concluded to be a hoax.
Geologist Dainis Ozols told the media on Monday that the crater was man-made. Another expert, Uldis Nulle of the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, originally thought it was a meteorite. However after in-depth analysis he recanted his statement, reports
The Independent Online, “This is not a real crater. It is artificial.”
Girts Stinkulis, from the Latvian State University, told
Russia Today, “There are traces of spade-work on the lip of the crater, as well as cut pieces of grass. Besides, the proportions of the crater are atypical – the mound of debris is too tall, while the pit is too large.”
However, a large amount of people were excited to see a possible crater such as Ilgonis Vilks, chairman of the scientific council at the University of Latvia’s Institute of Astronomy, who said, “It’s a fake. It’s very disappointing, I was full of hope coming here, but I am certain it is not a meteorite.”
Now, Latvian authorities are looking for the plotters who created this media-hyped incident on Sunday. Latvia’s Interior Minister Linda Murnietze thinks the suspects should be brought to justice and they must pay for all the work done by officials, experts and special services, “One should be answerable for this hoax.”
Fox News reports that
The Times Online had contacted the first witness who actually reported the scene, Ancis Steinberg. However, Steinberg has refused to answer telephone calls regarding the incident.
Nevertheless, landowner Larisa Gerasimova has quickly capitalized on the situation by charging visitors $2 to view the site of the crash.
Officially, the last meteor strike was in 2007 in Peru where it was 40 feet wide and 15 feet deep.
