A suspected explosion has been filmed close to where the Chinese spy balloon has been flying over Montana in the United States.
Footage appears to show a trail of smoke in the sky followed by a loud bang and flash in Billings, where the mysterious balloon was last spotted, raising tension between the US and China.
The video was uploaded to Twitter by Dolly Moore who could be heard saying: “Saw a jet go by so fast and then an explosion in the sky.”
But while the footage has been seen by more than four million people there are doubts about its authenticity.
Billings authorities have said that they have seen the video and, having spoken to the Montana Department of Emergency Services and Gov Greg Gianforte, have no evidence to verify it.
City of Billings tweeted: “We have confirmed with @MontanaDES and @Gov Gianforte that there have not been any explosions in, around, or across #Montana. They are aware of the video and it can not be substantiated.”
The balloon has roiled diplomatic tensions as it continued to move over the central US at 60,000 feet. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly cancelled an upcoming trip to China.
Curiosity about the bobbling sky orb that's the size of three school buses swept the nation and the internet, with search terms like "where is the spy balloon now?" and "spy balloon tracker" surging on Google. There is no such tracker just yet, but a couple of St Louis TV stations offered grainy live feeds of the balloon.
Internet users posted wobbly videos and photos of white splotches in comments sections and speculative feeds. And online storm chasers, more accustomed to tracking raging systems and funnel clouds, offered updates on the balloon's path through cloudless skies.
It crossed into US airspace over Alaska early this week, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
In Montana - home to Malmstrom Air Force base and dozens of nuclear missile silos - people doubted Beijing's claim that it was a weather balloon gone off course. And the governor and members of Congress pressed the Biden administration over why the military did not immediately bring it down from the sky.
"I question whether or not we would even have found out about this if people hadn't spotted it in Billings," said Chase Doak, a resident of the southern Montana city who appears to have captured some of the first known video footage and photographs of the balloon.
The white balloon with what appeared to be a solar array hanging beneath it was seen over Billings Wednesday afternoon, around the same time the local airport was temporarily shut down and a day before the Pentagon said it was tracking a Chinese spy balloon over the state.
