'UFO' blazes a trail across Spain

Updated





Thousands of people in Spain were terrified to see what appeared to be a UFO flying in the sky in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The bizarre sight sparked fears from panicked people that a burning UFO was heading for Earth, while many others thought it was a plane that had exploded - and emergency services were inundated with calls.

According to 9news, the meteorite blazed a trail across the the length of Spain at 6.55am before it disintegrated in the dawn sky.

It was visible from east to west – in Barcelona and Aragón in the north-east, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León in the centre, Valencia in the east, Andalucía in the south, and Extremadura in the west, reports the Mirror.

The Spanish Meteor Network confirmed the early morning meteor of unknown origin was seen above eight Spanish regions and the fireball was monitored by the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

Spanish astrophysicist, Jose Maria Trigo, said: "We think the meteorite may have flown over more areas of the country including Aragon, however, because it was pretty cloudy there we believe it may have been widely missed, and was only spotted when it emerged over a clear area that included Barcelona."

The team is now studying footage and adding it to scientific data to work out what it was, where it entered the atmosphere, and where it ended up.

Given its size, the suspected meteorite was too large to have burnt up and therefore would have impacted somewhere, according to Mr Triago.

"The question now is to find out where", he added.



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