Soon after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart in the skies over Texas on Saturday, people offered to sell on the Internet what they said was crash debris.

The offers for debris, which NASA officials had warned the public not to touch because of the possibility of toxic contamination, appeared briefly on the popular Internet auction site eBay spokesman said.

"My guess is between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. Pacific time for the first item, and there were a handful of listings throughout the course of the day," eBay spokesman Kevin Purseglove said.

The postings were expected, he said, noting that similar postings went up on the Web site shortly after the September 11 (2001) attacks.

"Whenever something like this happens, our customer service teams starts looking," Purseglove said. "Whenever an event has become the focus of a large degree of media attention, we have seen people try to list items associated with the event."

"Our experience has told us that listings like this are often pranks," he added. "Sometimes people are trying to draw attention to themselves or participate in a news story."

Thousands of pieces of the ill-fated spacecraft showered down on northeastern Texas after Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes from touchdown at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The seven astronauts on board were killed.

Purseglove said eBay would cooperate with any federal or state law enforcement requests to investigate the postings.

Michael Shelby, US Attorney for southern Texas, SAID that anyone who touched the shuttle debris could face a stiff penalty.

"It's a federal offenCe that could bring to 10 years in prison. And I will prosecute," he said.

© Reuters