Hunters who first reached the scene - alerted by a sudden and inexplicable change in the flow of the river - reported ‘hot rocks’ on which they could warm their hands

Not in doubt is that there was some epic event at a remote location on the Bureya River in Khabarovsk region in the first half of December.

The river - vital for supplying water to the Bureyskaya hydro power reservoir - was substantially blocked.

A vast hillside collapsed into the river below, ‘as if a mountain had moved’, said one observer.

A new 160-metre high mound visible from space now rises from the river bed.

Hunters who first reached the scene - alerted by a sudden and inexplicable change in the flow of the river - reported ‘hot rocks’ on which they could warm their hands.

Their initial guess was that the mayhem had been caused by a meteorite strike - even though there were no reports of a Chelyabinsk-type space rock hitting the Russian Far East in December.

As we reported previously, this was the view of local Verkhnebureinsky district head Alexey Maslov who said: ‘We are trying to find the explanation for this incident. I insist that it was a meteorite.’

Yet there were no records of a meteorite crashing to earth here at this time.

This theory was in the main rejected by experts - who had not travelled to the site - preferring the explanation of a large landslide possibly triggered by an earthquake.

The first aerial footage - seen here in pictures and a video - shows the mighty scale of the upheaval indicating the extent to which the Bureya is blocked as a result of this event.

The water flow into Bureyskaya has already diminished.

Yet it is the scene at ground level that inspires the most awe in observers.

The colossal size of some of the rocks, ‘as large as a five storey house’.

Pictures from the site at the Bureya river

Some trees are uprooted but others are ‘beheaded’ or ‘yanked apart’ by some stupendous but invisible force.

The roots and lower truck remain in the ground.

The upper trunk and the larch branches are some 30 metres away, torn asunder by a force.

On this snowy but scarred landscape are thick blocks of river ice, too. Yet they are nowhere near the river: this invisible force also somehow moved them "as if they had flown there".

So what was the cause?



Andrey Dyundin and his track. Pictures: The Siberian Times

In the early hours of 15 December, local businessman Alexey Dyundin and a 52 year old colleague were driving south in a truck from Nizhniy Bestyakh to Amga in neighbouring Yakutia region.

He owns several shops and had collected supplies.

The time was about 1.30am and pair say they witnessed an extraordinary sight.

Yakutia scientist Sergey Fyodorov knows Dyundin and testifies that he is not a man given to exaggeration.

‘Sadly that night we were not using a dashcam,’ the businessman told The Siberian Times. ‘How I wish we were.

'Me and colleague Mikhail were driving a truck with various food supplies for my shops towards Amga and in the general direction of Khabarovsk region.

'The night was clear. It was the sixth or eighth day of the lunar phase, so the Moon did not rise high and the sky was dark.

‘Seconds before 1.30am the whole sky lit up.

‘We saw a huge green-coloured body with a spectacularly bright and very long tail, falling almost vertically at about an 80 degrees angle.’

‘We saw it right in front of us, falling east to south.

‘It all happened within three or four seconds.’

Bureyskaya HPP

This is a swathe of Russia that might witness the falling of booster rockets from launches.

But Dyundin knows what this sight looks like, and said: ‘It was definitely not a rocket stage.

‘They falling much more slowly. They do have a glow when they fall, but it's nothing like the bright green glow we saw.

‘The green glow comes when meteorites contain a lot of iron.

‘Our first reaction was, well, hard to publish.

‘We were so stunned we just exclaimed 'What the **** was that?!’ at each other.’

As they drove south, towards Khabarovsk region, ‘we both agreed this must have been a meteorite’.

Startling new footage shows how a ‘mountain moved’, trees were ‘beheaded’, and blocks of river ice ‘flew’ onto the land

Dyundin returned home, told his wife about it, and got back to the usual routine of his life.

He only thought of it again when he saw a TV report a week later of the Buleya Blitzkrieg.

‘I saw a report on TV about the river dammed in Khabarovsk region,’ he said.

‘I watched the videos, compared the timing and realised this must be the meteorite we saw.’

He called scientist Sergey Fyodorov, who informed The Siberian Times.

The distance the men were from Bureya is some 1,100 kilometres yet while the theory of this meteorite being the cause of the carnage on the river is persuasive, we have discovered it is not supported by satellite images.

Shown here, these space pictures - from European satellite Sentinel - suggest that the changing face of the river came at least three days earlier, by the morning of 12 December.



Satellite image of the Bureya river site

Images from space appear to show a significant geographical change at this spot comparing date between 9 and 12 December.

This does not discount a meteorite as the cause, but suggests it was not the object seen by the businessman and his friend early on 15 December.

Recent reports also mention that infrared satellite tracking picked up a ‘thermal anomaly’ that preceded the giant landfall.

This indicates seismic activity may have precipitated the large landslide, it is claimed.

However, few details have been given; more may emerge as experts from various disciplines reach and examine the site.

Also heading to the location is a tourist group from neighbouring Amur region which intends to drive over the river ice to the mysterious spot in the first week of January.

'We know these places quite well, so there will be no problem getting there,’ said Vladimir Gutorov, head of the travel company organising the tour.

Meanwhile, a poll of locals asked for views on the cause of the Bureya event.

Some 27% said a meteorite crashing to earth, 40% a landslide - and 33% a UFO attack.