German police today announced that a fire which swept through a cottage near Bonn, in the process injuring a 77-year-old man, was probably caused by a meteor.

According to Reuters, the 10 October incendiary incident in Siegburg gutted the cottage and "badly burned the man's hands and face".

Police spokesman Burkhard Rick said: "We sought assistance from Bochum observatory and they noted that at that particular moment the Earth was near a field of meteoroid splinter and it could be assumed that particles had entered the atmosphere.

"The particles usually don't reach the surface because they disintegrate in the atmosphere. But some can make it to the ground. We believe this was a bolide [meteoric fireball] with a size of no more than 10mm." ®