A man was killed and three others were injured Saturday in what authorities said was a meteorite strike at a college campus in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. 
 
 An unidentified object left a four-feet deep crater after falling near a cafeteria inside the Bharathidasan Engineering College campus at about 12.30 p.m. on Saturday, G. Baskar, principal of the college in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, said. 
 
 “There was a noise like a big explosion,” said Mr. Baskar. “It was an abnormal sound that could be heard till at least 3 kilometers [about 2 miles] away,” he added. 
 
 It would be the first time in modern history that a person has been killed by a meteorite. 
 
 The powerful explosion smashed the windows of classrooms and the windshields of vehicles parked in the vicinity. Students at the college were immediately sent home and classes were suspended until Wednesday. 
 
 Mr. Baskar described the tiny rock fragments observed at the site of the explosion on Saturday as “blue-ish black” in color. 
 
 V. Kamaraj, who operated a bus for the college, suffered severe injuries while he was walking close to the area where the object struck. He died Saturday. Three others, including two gardeners working inside the campus and a student at the college, were also injured during the incident. 
 
 J. Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, said in a statement Sunday that Mr. Kamaraj died after a meteorite fell inside the college campus. She didn’t elaborate on what led authorities to believe the crater was caused by a meteorite. A spokesman for Ms. Jayalalithaa’s office couldn’t immediately be reached to comment. 
 
 A meteoroid is a small particle from an asteroid or comet that goes around the sun. When a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere it burns up, often seen as the light phenomenon known as a shooting star. A meteorite is a meteoroid that survives entry into the atmosphere and falls to Earth. 
 
 Sujan Sengupta, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said there was “extremely little possibility of a small meteorite falling to the ground” and killing someone. 
 
 “If a bigger asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it will disintegrate and travel in different directions and because most of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, it is most likely to fall into the ocean,” Mr. Sengupta said. 
 
 According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, there is no record “in modern times of any person being killed by a meteorite.” 
 
 “An individual’s chance of being killed by a meteorite is small, but the risk increases with the size of the impacting comet or asteroid,” NASA says on its website. A meteoroid larger than half a mile in diameter could have worldwide effects. If something smaller than that hits the Earth, it is likely to cause local damage. 
 
 The space agency’s “Near Earth Object Program” detects, tracks and characterizes potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that might approach Earth. As of Feb. 5, NASA says it has discovered 879 asteroids with a diameter of approximately a kilometer or larger. Experts say smaller asteroids and meteorites are harder, if not impossible, to track. 
 
 In 2013, a meteor explosion over Russia’s Ural Mountains left around 1,000 people injured, mostly by flying glass. Around 3,000 buildings were damaged. Russia’s Academy of Sciences said at the time that the meteor was several yards in diameter and weighed around 10 metric tons. 
 
 Ms. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister, announced compensation of 100,000 rupees ($1,473) for the family of the driver and 25,000 rupees to each of those injured. 
 
 Correction: A previous version of this post, in one instance, incorrectly said the incident took place on Sunday. It occurred on Saturday. 
 
 For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook ||||| A 40-year-old Indian man may have become the first person known to be killed by a meteorite falling from space. The presumed meteorite left a four-feet deep crater after falling into the campus of a private college in the state of Tamil Nadu at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday. 
 
 The powerful explosion also injured three gardeners and shattered window panes, but the students who were attending classes at the time were safe. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa said that the death of the man named Kamaraj, who worked as driver working in the Bharathdasan Engineering College Campus in Vellore district, had been caused by a meteorite. 
 
 However, some scientists are skeptical of the claim. 
 
 @BadAstronomer do you have an opinion on the alleged TamilNadu meteorite fatality? My skeptical spideysense is tingling — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) February 8, 2016 
 
 @planet4589 @BadAstronomer small meteorites do not create blast wave upon impact. Damage reported very local, undeep crater. Does not ad up — Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) February 8, 2016 
 
 @Marco_Langbroek @planet4589 @BadAstronomer I was sent picture of a minute meteorite recovered from the alleged impact site: makes no sense. — Daniel Fischer (@cosmos4u) February 8, 2016 
 
 While officials initially investigated it as a possible terror attack, they were not able to find any explosives. According to some reports, a similar incident had occurred in a village nearby last week. 
 
 Local scientists still have to confirm that a meteorite was responsible for the death. 
 
 Piece of a meteorite found at a private engineering college in Vellore. One person was dead in the explosion. pic.twitter.com/TON5qzIw7N — J Sam Daniel Stalin (@jsamdaniel) February 7, 2016 
 
 Windows shattered due to Meteor impact at Naatraampalli, Vellore. Just like russian meteor impact . pic.twitter.com/5ioJdNBV1c — Prashanth (@itisprashanth) February 7, 2016 
 
 There have been no recorded deaths by meteorites so far. According to a study by astronomer Alan Harris, the odds of being killed by a meteorite are 1 in 700,000. However, this risk increases as the size of the meteorite gets bigger. For instance, in 2013, a meteorite hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk injuring over 1,000 people and damaging buildings. ||||| A meteorite crashed into an engineering college in Vellore district on Saturday, causing an explosion that killed one man and injured three others, the Tamil Nadu government said on Sunday.Scientists, however, said it wasn't clear how the government concluded that a meteorite strike caused the blast. There has been no established death due to a meteorite hit in recorded history, they said.If a meteorite indeed caused the death, bus driver Kamaraj will be the first person ever to have died in a meteorite strike. Saturday's blast also injured two gardeners and a student.“You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time,“ is how astronomer and author of the book, Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors & Meteorites Michael Reynolds describes the likelihood of such an event in a National Geographic report.Regardless of the scepticism of experts, chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday said the government would pay compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Kamaraj's family .The three people injured in the explosion will receive Rs 25,000 each, she said.Witnesses said the blast left a crater 5ft deep and 2ft wide. Policemen recovered a black, pockmarked stone weighing 11g from the blast site.A police officer said the department would consult experts from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru and ask them for a detailed analysis of the stone to ascertain whether it is debris from a meteorite. A team of experts from the institute will visit the site on February 8.A bomb squad from Chennai took debris samples on Sunday for analysis at Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Mylapore. Police said preliminary investigation by police forensics experts ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast.“We did not find any trace of explosive substances, so we ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast,“ an investigating officer said. “We will wait for a final autopsy report on the body of driver Kamaraj and the report from the forensic lab to confirm what triggered the explosion.“The blast, which took place during class hours on Saturday when students, teachers and other staff were within the college's main building, shattered several windowpanes and damaged the windscreens of buses parked nearby . Police said Kamaraj went to wash his face at a tap near a water tank in the parking lot of the college when the explosion occurred around noon on Saturday . Thick smoke engulfed the area, witnesses said. A student, Santhosh, and two gardeners, Sasi and Murali, were injured. The blast deafened Santhosh, although doctors could not immediately say if the condition would be permanent.The first person in history that a meteorite is confirmed to have hit was American Ann Hodges, 'National Geographic' reported. A softball-size hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling of her house in Sylacauga, Alabama, in November 1954 and hit her in the thigh, leaving a pineapple-shaped bruise. Scientists closely watch space bodies that come to earth and predict in advance when a meteor large enough to stay intact after burning up in the atmosphere is going to hit the planet.“Organizations like International Meteor Organization have already put out the calendar for 2016 -for the days we can expect meteor showers and if there are any chances of them hitting earth. These occurrences are catalogued for the benefit of stargazers,“ said Isro Mars Orbiter Mission project director V Adimurthy.“They even predict the time of the meteor showers and are almost never wrong,“ he said. “The last meteor shower was on January 3 and the next one is between April 22 and 23. There is nothing for February." ||||| Image caption The meteorite left a crater inside the campus of Bharathidasan Engineering College in Vellore 
 
 Indian scientists have been asked to verify claims that a man died after being hit by a meteorite in southern Vellore city. 
 
 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram said on Sunday that Kamraj, a bus driver, died after a meteorite fell on a college campus. 
 
 Scientists said tests were needed to confirm that the rock was a meteorite. 
 
 If confirmed, experts said this would be the first such death in nearly 200 years. 
 
 According to a list prepared by the International Comet Quarterly, a man was killed in a "meteorite fall" in India in 1825. 
 
 PK Senthilkumari, chief of Vellore police, told The Hindu that a "small stone weighing about 10g was recovered from the spot" at Bharathidasan Engineering College. 
 
 Image copyright Tamil Nadu Police Image caption Further tests were needed to confirm that the darkish rock was actually a meteorite 
 
 "We have requested scientists to come and examine the object." 
 
 Kamraj was working in the campus when the object fell and caused a loud explosion. It left a crater in the ground and blew out glass windows in the adjoining buildings. 
 
 The victim "sustained serious injuries and died while on the way to the hospital," Ms Jayaram said. 
 
 The government has announced a financial aid of 100,000 (£1,000;$1,441) for Kamraj's family. 
 
 Meteors are chunks of rock and debris that burn up as they plummet through Earth's atmosphere. Meteorites are larger, more durable objects that survive heating in the atmosphere and land on Earth.
– There's the slim chance of being hit by lightning, and then there's the almost nonexistent chance of being hit by a meteorite. A man in India, however, was apparently killed by the latter, which would likely make him the first person recorded killed by an object that fell from outer space, Mashable reports. V. Kamaraj, a 40-year-old bus driver for Bharathidasan Engineering College in Tamil Nadu, was reportedly walking on campus when the meteorite smashed down around 12:30pm Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reports; he suffered severe injuries and died, while two gardeners and a student were injured. "There was a noise like a big explosion," the college principal says. "It was an abnormal sound that could be heard … about 2 miles away." Students were sent home, and classes are nixed until Wednesday. NASA says there's no record "in modern times of any person being killed by a meteorite," and an astronomer pegged the odds of being killed by an asteroid (a meteorite is a piece of an asteroid that survives entry into Earth's atmosphere and lands) within one's lifetime as 1 in 700,000—a chance Discover notes is rare but still higher than getting killed by a terrorist (though the Discover article is from 2008). This particular meteorite was powerful enough to shatter window panes and car windshields, as well as leave a 4-foot-deep crater where it landed and what the principal describes as "blue-ish black" rock particles. The government has confirmed the deceased died from being hit by a meteorite, but some scientists are calling for further analysis of the rock, the Times of India notes. "You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time," one astronomer says. (International Comet Quarterly lists "some interesting meteorite falls of the last two centuries," noting it was "possible" a man was killed in 1825.)