Researchers claim to have found historical evidence that a meteorite hit and killed a man and paralyzed another on 22 August, 1888, based on three manuscripts written in Ottoman Turkish taken out of the Turkish State archives.
According to the research, several meteorites hit a hilltop in the province of Sulaymaniyah, in the territory of modern Iraq. "Eyewitness testimony" cited in the report claims that an "extraterrestrial object approached the area from the southeast, exploded in midair, and sent a 10-minute long rain of rock fragments to the ground".
This event was also reported to Abdul Hamid II (34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire) by the governor of Sulaymaniyah, and he reportedly accompanied his letter with a sample of meteorite.
"These findings suggest other historical records may still exist that describe other events that caused death and injuries by meteorites", researchers mention in the abstract of the article.
The report joins previous evidence of injuries made by meteorites that include a suggestion that in 1911 a space rock took a dog's life in Cairo, Egypt, and the story of Ms. Hewlett Hodges in the US state of Alabama who was left with a bruise on her thigh after a meteorite smashed the roof of the house she lived in, as she napped on a couch, the only documented injury caused by a meteorite.