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Six rocket fragments removed from Siberian villages

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MOSCOW, March 18 (RIA Novosti) - A total of six rocket fragments that fell near villages in southwest Siberia after lift off from Kazakhstan on Saturday have been removed, local officials said on Tuesday.

"The wreckage has been collected and evacuated on a helicopter," a spokesman for the local administration said.

The incident occurred after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center leased by Russia from nearby Kazakhstan on March 15.

The wreckage landed in three villages of the Ust-Kansky Region some 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside the designated area for rocket debris.

The smallest fragment with a weight of 60 grams landed in the yard of a village in the Altai Republic destroying the shed roof. Other wreckage landed close to houses, but no casualties have been reported. The largest fragment measured five meters (16 foot) long.

"Although no one was hurt by the fragments, people are unhappy that space waste is falling next to their houses," the spokesman said.

The Altai Republic has been used as a "cemetery" for fallen fragments of carrier rockets launched from the Baikonur space center for more than 40 years. Experts estimate that about 2.5 metric tons of "space waste" has fallen in unpopulated areas of the republic during this period.

On February 5, shortly after the launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center, a three-and-a-half-meter (11 foot) long rocket fragment landed outside the designated area for rocket debris, a few meters from the house of an Altai shepherd.

The man, who was uninjured in the incident, said he and his children had been extremely frightened and demanded compensation of 500,000 rubles ($21,000).

Another Siberian farmer claimed that in the year since a fragment of a rocket fell near his herd of horses, four of the horses had died. However, scientists rejected his claims saying he should "look elsewhere for the cause."

A few years ago another resident of the region sought damage from Federal Space Agency Roscosmos in similar circumstances. A court awarded him a mere $400 in compensation.

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