A huge fireball lit up the sky Monday evening in Oxfordshire, a county in southeast England, after a very loud “explosion” was heard in the area for the first time, SkyNews reported.

The mysterious explosion was heard by people in the region, who then shared images of the huge fire on social media.

RENEWAL: British police have announced that authorities are responding to a fire believed to have been caused by lightning that struck several gas tanks near the city of Oxford, Reuters reported.

“It appears that during this evening’s storm, lightning struck the gas tanks that were there and caused a large fire,” police said in a statement posted on X (Twitter). “No one is believed to have been injured but emergency services are on the scene.”

Local residents and drivers passing by the highway in the area noticed the illuminated sky on Monday evening, around 19:00 local time (21:00 Romanian). A strange sky that seemed to pulsate was also observed from apartment windows northwest of Oxford, News.ro reported.

In this area there was a summer thunderstorm with rain accompanied by lightning. Forecasters have issued a code yellow warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain in the Oxfordshire region.

One person wrote on social media: “Anyone else in Oxford see that fireball?”, adding that there was a “loud explosion”.

Another person added: “So amazing, the sky was pulsating.”

Stuart Reid wrote on X: “Lightning near Oxford (on the A34). Lightning struck something that ignited.”

“We had the most incredible thunder and lightning storm, it came out of nowhere and the noise was incredible. Lightning struck right in front of my house and it was deafening. It was awful. terribly. The power has just been restored but we’ve been without power all evening,” Ana Keavey, who lives in Somerton, about 15 miles north of Oxford, told Sky News.

Joshua Bull wrote on X: “Definitely some kind of explosion – looks like it’s near Yarnton? It must have been huge, I’m in Marston and I thought it was a car that crashed in front of my flat.’

Mahmet Ciftci also wrote on X: “Just saw something here in Kidlington that looked like an explosion from a distance. I heard a noise like thunder and saw flames in the distance. The horizon turned orange for a while.”

In March, sonic booms were reported across central England, including Oxford. At first thought to be a mystery, Essex Police later explained that it was caused by two Royal Air Force planes escorting another plane.