Residents in Scotland and northern England were stunned to witness a possible meteor streak across the sky, describing the event as “amazing” and “awesome”.
The UK Meteor Network confirmed they had received more than 200 reports of “a fireball spotted” as of 9pm on Wednesday, with the majority of sightings coming from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The celestial phenomenon was caught on camera, showing a brightly lit object flying at a downward angle followed by a huge tail.
“Did I just see a shooting star in Motherwell or is it something crashing in the sky?” Rhiannon Hayes, a Twitter user, said in a video that is now going viral.
Several comments followed the video, sharing a video from the same time in different locations.
“Hi Barra, I just saw this. At first I thought it was a firework, no noise and it didn’t explode quickly, it took my phone out, are we having meteor showers or what?” said another.
CCTV footage in Linlithgow, West Lothian, captured the fireball shooting across the sky in the distance.
Some users who witnessed the astronomical sighting said they had never seen anything like it before.
“Yes, seen in Glasgow city center about 30 minutes ago, much bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” said one user.
Another said: “Just saw it in Glasgow around 10pm!! Never seen anything like it!”
“Me and my 2 daughters saw the meteor, it was amazing but one of my younger daughters was terrified,” said another.
The UK Meteor Network, a group with a network of 170 detection cameras that record meteors and fireballs in the UK, said they are “investigating to determine whether the object was a meteor or space debris”.
Just a month ago, officials in Utah, US, said a loud boom followed by seconds of rumbling was heard across the region, likely caused by a meteorite crash.