Meteor shower triggers flood of emergency calls in Finland

Tue Jul 13, 1:20 PM ET

HELSINKI (AFP) - A burst of meteors over Finnish coastal waters prompted hundreds of Finns to mistakenly report the natural phenomenon as emergency flares from distressed vessels, officials said.

The shower might have lasted just a few seconds, but so far we have gotten over 70 calls. The first hour was very busy here," said Matti Salokorpi, senior lieutenant with the maritime rescue center in Vaasa, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Helsinki.

On a normal night the rescue center might get around 10 calls, he told AFP, adding that Vaasa's ambulance and fire services had received as many calls due to the natural phenomenon created when space debris hits the earth's atmosphere at high speed.

Several other rescue centers along the Finnish west coast reported numerous similar calls, according to media here.

One of the callers, cruising in his pleasure boat off the coast, described the phenomenon as a red fireball moving swiftly through the night sky, spewing sparks and leaving a trail of vapor before turning white as it entered the atmosphere, Finnish news agency FNB reported.

A glowing meteor could easily be mistaken for an emergency flare, which is an international alarm signal for sailors in need of assistance, Salokorpi said.

According to Finnish and international maritime regulations, any person who sees an emergency flare is bound by law to report it, he said. It is up to the rescue center to decide whether such an observation is a distress call or not, and not the observer.