"It's all over Nacogdoches," said James Milford, owner of Milford Barber shop downtown. "There are several little pieces, some parts of machinery. There's been a lot of pieces about 3 feet wide."

NASA lost contact with the spaceship while it was at an altitude of about 40 miles and traveling at six times the speed of sound.

Nacogdoches, situated in the piney woods region of East Texas, 135 miles northeast of Houston, activated its emergency operations center and sent emergency crews to the reported debris.

"At this point we're just trying to get it out to the public to not touch or tamper with this debris in any manner due to the possibility of toxic substances being on the debris," police spokesman Greg Sowell said.

National Guardsmen were sent to protect the debris.

Jeff Hancock, a 29-year-old dentist, said he found a chunk of debris in his office. "It came through the roof of my office. It's about a foot-long metal bracket," he said.

Ed Rohner, Nacogdoches airport manager, said some type of tank ended up on a runway.

"We have one large, several foot in diameter, some type of tank that was in the middle of a runway. We've got pieces of debris all along the entrance road to the airport," Rohner said. "I don't know what it is. It's a large, round metal tank, several feet in diameter."

R.T. Gregory, a waiter at Aubrey's Cafe in Nacogdoches, said he and about 50 other people gathered around a taped-off piece of metal debris in the parking lot of the Commercial Bank of Texas. He said the debris was about 4 feet long and 4 feet wide.

"There was a lot of people coming, I guess just wanting to see it," Gregory said.