Meteor over Shropshire sparks 999 calls
People across Shropshire have reported seeing a meteor burning across the night sky.
West Mercia Police received eight calls from members of the public last night.
Drinkers at a pub in Coalbrookdale, near Ironbridge, also witnessed the phenomenon.
Louise McManus, manager of the Coalbrookdale Inn, said it consisted of around '15 to 20' fiery objects in a line breaking into pieces.
"They were coloured greeny white," she said. "They were travelling slowly from east to west and took around 10 seconds to cover half the sky."
She said the meteor appeared just before 11pm. "It was very noticeable and large, we thought it was a firework at first," she said.
Lorry driver Robin Wellings, 41, from Bridgnorth, was returning home through Meole Brace in Shrewsbury when he also spotted a light in the night sky.
Sparkling
He said: "It was a stream of blue and white, almost like sparkling lights."
West Mercia Police control room supervisor David Smith said the force had received calls from people reporting that they had spotted the meteor.
He said reports varied from a 'large streak of fire' to a 'stream of lights'. The meteor was seen and reported by people across the UK, with the majority of sightings coming from Scotland and the North of England.
The Met Office tweeted: "Hi all, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite."
The Kielder Observatory also reported the sighting of a 'huge fireball' travelling over Northumberland.
Coastguards in Northern Ireland took calls from people who saw the objects from Coleraine on the north coast, to Strangford Lough in the south east. Sightings were also made in Dublin and in parts of Scotland including Edinburgh and Glasgow.
