Scientists are investigating whether a man in India was killed by a meteorite, which if confirmed would be the first-ever recorded death from falling space rocks.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has said a bus driver at a college in her state was killed by the meteorite and awarded 100,000 rupees (£1,017) in compensation to his family.

Local officials struggling to explain the mystery blast on February 6 at the engineering college that left a small crater and smashed windows.

The bus driver was standing on a patch of grass near the college cafeteria when he was hit.

Two gardeners and a student were also injured, officials said.

A dark blue stone resembling a diamond was found at the scene, according to the Reuters news agency.

Overall, the odds of getting hit by a meteorite are:

Government officials at first suspected the blast was caused by explosives accidentally left after building work, but investigations found no evidence of explosive material at the site.

"When no evidence of explosive material was found, we moved to the theory that it might be a meteorite," said a district official who asked not be named.

"It is not confirmed yet as samples need to be analysed."

A team from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics is expected to visit the site on Tuesday to collect samples.

G. Baskar, the principal of the college in Vellore district, was working in his cabin when he heard an explosion.

"It was a sound like nothing I've ever heard before," he said. "There was no smell at all, no fire, nothing."

The last reported death from a meteorite strike was in 1825 and also in India, according to a list kept by International Comet Quarterly, a scientific journal.

However, as fragments from this impact were never recovered, some don't regard it as a 'confirmed' kill.

Simon Goodwin, astrophysics expert at the University of Sheffield, told Reuters that meteorite deaths were rare because the rocks usually burn up when passing through the Earth's atmosphere or land in the ocean or hit remote areas.

"When you look at the fraction of the Earth's surface that is heavily populated, it's not very much," he said.