LATVIA: Falling of Celestial Object and Alleged UFO Sightings in Karki [February 2007]

On 4th February at about 10 pm. an unidentified object [probably a meteorite] fell down to a pond located in a village in the northern part of Latvia punching a hole in the ice crust. This event coincided with alleged UFO sightings reported in the area.

First information on the event emerged on 13th February in "Degpunkta" broadcast of Latvian National Television where the incident was reported as an event from 12th February. In fact it took place a week before.
An unknown celestial object fell to the pond in Karki [Karkyu] village on 4th February 2007 at about 10 pm. Despite low temperatures the hole allegedly remained unfrozen for two subsequent days.

The place of the incident was visited by Radiating Control Service and a commission from Latvian Ministry of Environment. Unfortunately members of both commissions weren't able to give a reasonable explanation. Andriejs Salmins - head of the public service of Radiating Control stated that first measurements at the place of incident didn't reveal anything unusual but subsequent procedures conducted at the edge of the aperture revealed strongly raised radioactive background - Latvian sources said.
But it wasn't the end of revelations.
As it turned out, repeated measurements conducted just after the aforementioned ones, didn't found any anomalies.
Moreover, in the day of incident a witness living 2.5 km from Karki observed a strange, metallic object in a form of half-moon encircled with a ring. Other witness stated that a "column of light" was observed in the pond area on 13th February*.
"NECTON LABORATORY" group is presently involved in the investigation of the case. The pond was closed from visitors by its owner. The secret of that night [or a part of it] remained hidden under 3 m. deep under the ice surface.According to first opinions given by the group, presence of radioactive pollution may refer to a meteoric origin of the object [it would be the 5th one meteorite found on Latvian territory] but other possibilities [for example space junk] hasn't been excluded.
Further investigation will also prove whether alleged UFO sightings that took were reported by locals have something in common with the falling of the object or if two distinct phenomena coincided.

* Other sources mention that amongst the witnesses was a local girl and also suggest that more local inhabitants might witness the event. "6 beams of light" in the pond area are also mentioned. Information about alleged UFO sighting that might coincide with falling of the object need verification.

Source: Vlad Guscha – “NECTON Laboratory” [Pribaltika Kosmopoisk], LATVIA.
By: Piotr Cielebiaś – “NOL – the Eastern European UFO Journal”, 17/02/07