RIGA, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - A Latvian mobile operator that staged a hoax meteorite strike in the Baltic state on Sunday will have to pay at least $26,000 in damages, the interior minister told the LNT TV channel Tuesday.

Tele2 marketing and sales director Janis Sprogis confessed that the meteorite reports were false on Monday after Interior Minister Linda Murniece vowed to recoup the costs of investigating the incident.

Murniece also said on Tuesday that the Interior Ministry would discontinue a contract with Tele2.

Latvian media said a celestial body fell near a residential house on the outskirts of the town of Mazsalaca in the Valmiera district of Latvia, leaving a crater some 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter and 10 meters (33 feet) deep.

Video footage showed a fire at the bottom of the crater. A witness who said he saw the object falling described a burning trail in the sky and a noise similar to that made by an aircraft flying at low altitude.

The owner of the land where the meteorite purportedly landed was reported to have charged visitors $2 to have a look at the crater.

Latvian and Estonian scientists who studied the site said on Monday that the meteorite story was a fake.