US and Russian communications satellites have collided in space over Siberia in the first such reported accident. The impact produced massive clouds of debris, and the magnitude of the crash is not expected to be clear for weeks, the BBC reported Thursday.

A satellite owned by the US company Iridium hit a defunct Russian satellite at high speed nearly 780km over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said.

There are thousands of man-made objects orbiting the earth, but this is thought to be the first time two intact spacecraft have hit each other. Nasa is now tracking the hundreds of pieces of wreckage from the collision. It is hoped that most of it will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle launch planned for later this month is said to be low.

Communications firm Iridium, based in Bethesda, Maryland, said it "lost an operational satellite" after it was struck on Tuesday by the Russian satellite.

The firm described it as an "extremely unusual, very low-probability event", stressing that it was not caused by any fault on its part.

Some officials have said the Russian satellite, launched in 1993 and weighing 950kg (2,094lb), was out of control.

Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since 1957. Around 3,000 remain in operation, according to Nasa.

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