Treasure hunters push up prices of fallen meteorites

A spike in meteorite prices has turned many local people into treasure hunters after a blazing fireball illuminated the night sky on Friday evening in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province.

Videos by witnesses posted online show chondrites - stony nonmetallic meteorites - the size of table tennis balls.

Jiang Wei, a meteorite expert from the China Association for Scientific Expedition, said they found several meteorites in the prefecture's Manlun village, with two crashing through the clay roof of a village house.