More than 200 reports have been received from people reporting a mysterious “fireball” crossing the night sky over Scotland and Northern Ireland, the BBC and The Irish Times reported on Thursday, Agerpres reported.

Britain’s Meteor Network said it had started receiving reports of a “fireball” seen in the night sky and was “investigating whether the object was a meteorite or space debris”, adding that most reports were coming from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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

“I was walking my dog, it was almost 10pm when I saw a bright light in the sky, took out my phone and took a video,” the man from Glasgow told the PA news agency.

“At first I thought it might be fireworks because there are a lot of football games in Scotland, but I quickly realized it wasn’t and took out my phone to see if I could capture the moment,” he added.

What the scientist says about the “fireball”

Steve Owens, an astronomer and science communicator at the Glasgow Science Centre, said he saw a “fireball” as it flew over Scotland on Wednesday night.

“This was incredible. Last night I was sitting in the living room at exactly 10:00 PM and I saw this bright fireball, this meteor flying across the sky in the south window, and I knew it was something special. It was not quite visible. I could see it shattering, little pieces coming off of it,” said Steve Owens.

He added that it was possible that an object had landed, but it was “highly unlikely” that it had landed in Scotland.