Witnesses told of a fiery ball falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate Andean plain near the Bolivian border at the weekend. Officials have said it was a meteorite.

When villagers went to investigate, they encountered fetid, noxious gases, according to local health officials.

Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the state of Puno, said 200 people have suffered headaches, nausea and respiratory problems caused by "toxic" fumes from the resulting crater, which is about 66 feet wide and 16 feet deep.

"This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash," Mr Lopez said.

People are scared," he said, adding people went to the site after hearing a crash that they thought might be an airplane.

"We ourselves went near the crater and now we've got irritated throats and itching noses," Mr Lopez said.

Eight doctors had been sent to investigate and treat the sick.

But it's not just people who aren't feeling well after breathing in the gases. A bull has died and some other animals are also sick.

Municipal authority, Marco Limachi, reported that after the unidentified glowing object fell from the sky, the citizens of the town of Carancas began to have migraines, nausea and diarrhea.

Limachi stated, "the animals aren't eating and some people are stuttering, it seems to be because they are frightened and worried about the impact."

The Regional Health Director, Jorge Lopez, stated that not only would the people living closest to where the supposed meteorite landed be observed, but that people in the surrounding areas would also be tested for illnesses.

Ursula Marvin, a meteor expert at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, said it was likely the dust raised when the object hit the ground was causing the health problems.

She said a meteorite "wouldn't get much gas out of the earth".

Three geologists from Peru's Geophysics Institute are on their way to the site to determine whether it was, in fact, a meteorite, and are expected to present a report on the incident on Thursday.

Similar cases were reported in 2002 and 2004 elsewhere in southern Peru but were never confirmed as meteorites.