WATCH: UFO in skies over NI sparks investigation - Met Office and Met Éireann cast doubt on weather balloon theory

The 23 second long clip was recorded by a woman in Annalong, Co. Down on July 8, 2020.

The woman shared the video with Northern Ireland Unidentified Flying Object Society (NIUFOS) who posted it on its Facebook page and YouTube channel."This video was sent to us by a woman from Annalong who recorded this earlier this evening," said Chris from NIUFOS.

"Initially spotted by her daughter, it's caught the attention of locals and ourselves.

"There're also reports of this, or an object like it, having been spotted in Kilkeel in recent weeks too."

The video has been shared on social media by UFO enthusiasts all over the world - many of whom have put forward their own explanations.

One of the theories put forward was that the object was a weather balloon but this has been debunked by both experts at the Met Office and Met Éireann.

"The weather balloons that we use at Castor Bay are almost all off-white in colour and spherical, with a very small white instrument packages suspended far below," said the Met Office.

"The object in the video is too unclear to identify, but we doubt that a phone camera could see such a relatively small object at such a great distance and height from the reported filming location.

"As such, we doubt that the object seen could be the Castor Bay radiosonde."

Met Éireann said the UFO was "definitely" not one of its weather balloons.

"This definitely was not one of our balloons, which would be out of eyesight soon after launch, down here in Kerry," said Met Éireann.

Despite NIUFOS' best attempts to identify the object it remains unexplained.

"As it stands, it's currently unidentified and we're working to try and establish what this strange object could be.

"Watch this space," said Chris.