Moscow: A Siberian resident miraculously escaped serious injury or even death when a fragment of a Russian communication satellite crashed through the roof of his house.

A Meridian satellite that was launched Friday from the Plesetsk space centre in northern Russia on board a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket crashed near the Siberian city of Tobolsk minutes after lift-off.

Eight satellite fragments were found in an area some 100 km from the city of Novosibirsk.

A titanium ball of about five kg fell on to the roof of a house in Ordyn district.

The house owner, Andrei Krivorukov, had gone out to the yard to fetch firewood minutes before the crash.

The village administration has promised to repair the house at its expense.

The Meridian-series of communication satellites are used for both civilian and military purposes. They are designed to provide communication between vessels, airplanes and coastal stations on the ground, as well as to expand a network of satellite communications in the northern regions of Siberia and the Russian Far East.

The Soyuz-2 is an upgraded version of the Soyuz rocket, which has been a workhorse of Russia's manned and unmanned space programmes since the 1960s.

Tags: Russian satellite, Satellite crash, Satellite crashes on house, Soyuz-II