Mr Yurevich said that two-thirds of the injuries were light wounds from pieces of glass and other materials. In the city of Chelyabinsk alone, 758 people had required medical help, the city said in a statement on its website. Sixteen were hospitalised, including three children.
Video footage taken by residents on dashboard cameras in cars and mobile phones in the Urals city showed a meteor streaking through the sky, and then a blaze of light followed later by the sound of explosions and breaking glass.
Tonight’s asteroid near-miss is totally unrelated to the meteor shower and on a totally different trajectory.
The 150ft (45m) asteroid will pass so close to Earth that it will go lower than some communications satellites, but will not be near enough to become visible in the evening sky to the naked eye.
It is thought that a good pair of binoculars would be strong enough to pick out the asteroid as a bright speck travelling in a north at 7.30pm.
However, most people have been advised to watch events live on the internet.
The best sightings will be in Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe, and although the asteroid will become visible through telescopes in Britain and Asia, astronomers said it would be hard for anyone without expertise to locate.
Members of the public who want to witness the asteroid were advised to contact their local astronomical society, or watch footage beamed from observatories in Australia online.
Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society said: “Most people are going to struggle to see it. If you know your way around the sky you could do it with a pair of binoculars but it is not bright enough to see without them.
“It is a very interesting event but it is not the sort of thing the public can just dip into.”
At its nearest point, at approximately 7.25pm, it will reach 17,150 miles (27,600km) over Indonesia before shooting away, passing our satellites again by 8pm.
Astronomers have admitted there is a chance that 2012 DA14 could collide with one of these satellites as it passes by, but said this was extremely unlikely.
The close pass of the asteroid the size of a swimming pool poses no threat to Earth, but will give scientists the opportunity to study it up close and learn more about its composition and orbit.
Although smaller asteroids have come closer than this, objects the size of 2012 DA14 are only expected to make such narrow passes about once every 40 years.
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