Weird red rain in India panics people . . . ‘blood red’ rain falls

Why are people panicking as their courtyards fill with "mysterious blood red rain"?
Did Nostradamus and others predict "rain like blood"?
Has this happened before?
What causes the red color in the mysterious rain?
Is it caused by an unidentified life form?
Could dust from a meteor affect an area more than a decade later?
Is all this just coincidence?

On Thursday, July 5, 2012, around 6:50 p.m. local time, a mysterious red rain shower fell for about 15 minutes in Kannur, Kerala, India. Locales within a one kilometer area in the Indian state of Kerala experienced this phenomenon, as it filled courtyards with blood red rain and stained people's clothes pink.
Mysterious red rain in India some form of extraterrestrial life?
Godfrey Louis, Ph.D. and Santosh Kumar hypothesize, "The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala are considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form."
Godfrey Louis, Ph.D. and Santosh Kumar hypothesize, "The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala are considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form."

Nostradamus, Century 2, Quatrain 46
After a great misery for mankind an even greater approaches. The great cycle of the centuries is renewed: It will rain blood, milk, famine, war and disease.In the sky will be seen a fire, dragging a tail of sparks.

Kannur block panchayat President Shaija M collected a sample of the mysterious red rainwater. It was dark and had the smell of raw beetroot. His first thought was that an animal had been killed and its blood had mixed with the rainwater in the courtyard.

However, this is not the first time this “mysterious red rain” has fallen in the state of Kerala. Actually, it has been reported several times during the past decade.

From July 25 to September 23, 2001, this mysterious "blood red rain" sporadically fell in heavy downpours in Kerala.
In summer of 2006, the mysterious red rains fell a second time and gained widespread attention.

Initially, it was thought that the mysterious red rains were colored by fallout from a meteor burst, while a study commissioned by the Indian Government concluded that the rains had been colored by airborne spores from locally prolific terrestrial algae.

Two scientists, Godfrey Louis, Ph.D. and Santhosh Kumar of the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, proposed a controversial hypothesis, "The mysterious red color in the rain is caused by unidentified life form that does not have DNA."

In August 2008, they presented their case at an astrobiology conference:

"The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala, India are now considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form. The molecular composition of these cells is yet to be identified."

However, Louis and Kumar have not yet been explained how dust from a meteor could continue to fall over the same area - despite changing climatic conditions and wind patterns - for not only a couple of months, but for more than a decade.

Is all this just coincidence?

There is no such thing as coincidence. Coincidence is just a name for "law not recognized."