200 reports of mysterious ‘fireball’ lighting up sky over Northern Ireland

The UK Meteor Network said it began receiving reports of a fireball spotted about 9pm on Thursday.

The network said it was “investigating to ascertain what the object was, meteor or space debris”, adding that most reports had come from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Danny Nell, 21, was walking his dog in Johnstone, just west of Paisley and Glasgow, when he saw the fireball.

“I was walking my dog and it was strangely enough 10pm on the dot and I just saw the flash in the sky and pulled out my phone and recorded it,” the Glasgow resident told the PA news agency.

“I thought it may be a firework at first because there was a lot of Scottish football on but quickly realised it wasn’t and just grabbed my phone to see if I could catch it.”