Scientists are analysing a small blue rock which killed a man after it fell from the sky in southern India to determine if it is a meteorite.

The rock slammed into the ground at an engineering college in Tamil Nadu state over the weekend, shattering a water cooler and sending splinters and shards flying.

Police said a bus driver standing nearby died after being hit by the debris.

The principal of the college said he heard a loud thud from his office, where several window panes shattered after the rock struck the ground.

Tamil Nadu officials have already declared the bluish rock, small enough to hold in the hand, to be a meteorite.

Experts at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics are examining the site, near Vellore city, and conducting a chemical analysis to determine whether the rock came from space.