rocket debris seen falling over village after launch

Suspected debris from a Chinese rocket was seen plummeting to the ground over a village in southwest China on Saturday, leaving a trail of bright yellow smoke and sending villagers running, according to videos on Chinese social media and sent to CNN by a local witness.

The dramatic footage surfaced online shortly after a Long March 2C carrier rocket blasted off at 3p.m. local time Saturday (3 a.m. Eastern Time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The rocket sent into orbit the Space Variable Objects Monitor, a powerful satellite developed by China and France to study the farthest explosion of stars known as gamma-ray bursts.