Woman Struck By Meteorite While Having Coffee With Friend

A French woman was reportedly struck by a small meteorite while having coffee with a friend, the French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace reported (h/t India Times).

The unidentified woman said she and her friend were sitting on a terrace when she heard a loud noise and was then hit in the ribs.

"I heard a big 'Poom' coming from the roof next to us. In the second that followed, I felt a shock on the ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat!" she told the newspaper. "We thought it was a piece of cement, the one we apply to the ridge tiles. But it didn't have the color."

The woman said she contacted geologist Thierry Rebmann, who suggested the strange object was a meteorite after spotting its iron and silicon composition. The rock was reported to have weighed approximately 4 ounces.

Rebmann said that an estimated 50 tons of meteoritic material falls to the Earth's surface on a daily basis, however, most lands into oceans and its "very rare, in our temperate environments to find them," though incidents of meteorites striking people have happened over the years. The first confirmed case of a person being struck by a meteorite took place in Sylacauga, Alabama, when Ann Hodges was hit by an 8 pound rock that fell through the roof of her home and resulted in severe bruising in November 1954, according to Smithsonian Magazine.