Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff and agencies

Meteorite crashes through roof of Canada woman’s home and on to bed

A fragment from a meteorite is seen in an undated photo issued by the Natural History Museum.
A fragment from a meteorite is seen in an undated photo issued by the Natural History Museum. Photograph: Trustees of the Natural History Museum/PA

A woman in Canada awoke in shock earlier this week when a rock crashed through the ceiling of her home and landed on her bed, narrowly missing her but spraying grit and other debris on her face, as her dog barked frantically.

Police were called and the culprit was initially suspected to be a construction site nearby, where work must have sent the fist-sized projectile onto the woman’s pillow. But when the construction workers said they had not set any blasts – but had just seen an explosion in the sky – the consensus quickly became that the rock was a meteorite, the Canadian Press reported.

Ruth Hamilton had been fast asleep in Golden, a small town amid the Rocky Mountains, in British Columbia, on 3 October when her dog began barking and she woke with a start.

“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to do so I called 911 and, when I was speaking with the operator, I flipped over my pillow and saw that a rock had slipped between two pillows.”

It turned out there had been a meteorite shower in the skies above the western Canadian region that night. Hamilton plans to keep the space rock and is very relieved she wasn’t injured.

“I was in shock and I just sat here for a few hours shaking,” she said. “The odds of that happening are so small so I’m pretty grateful to be alive.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.