Meteor 'fireball' seen in skies over Scotland

Video caption, Jenny finds out more about the meteor sightings in Scotland

A large meteor seen in the sky over north-east Scotland has been caught on camera.

Police received a number of calls after a big, bright flash or 'fireball' was seen - with people reporting seeing a blue, white or green light at about 6.45pm on Monday evening. Others said they had heard a rumbling sound.

Professor Keith Horne, from St Andrews University, said the meteor was probably about 10cm across, with the rumbling sound caused by a sonic boom.

Video caption, A bright flash and fireball seen in the night sky over north-east Scotland was probably a piece of space rock burning up in the atmosphere, an expert has said

The Met Office said the event was "not weather-related" as there were no thunder storms recorded on Monday night.

Professor Horne said the flash would have been caused by a meteor, the size of a tennis ball, travelling at about 30 kilometres per second.

"What you've seen is a piece of rock from outer space that has crashed into the earth," he said.

"When it hits the atmosphere it starts to burn up... It releases all this energy into the atmosphere which will cause a bright flash and sometimes bits of this explode."

'Scary and amazing'

Video caption, A bright flash seen in the skies over Scotland on Monday evening is caught on camera by Jenni Morrison from Aberdeenshire

One eyewitness who caught the flash on camera, Jenni Morrison, said "it was pitch black and then all of a sudden it was like a light switch went on. It became daylight - the whole sky lit up.

"I looked at my son, he looked at me and then it just went black again. It really didn't last long at all - literally seconds.

"We didn't realise what it was at the time until we looked back on my dashcam. We saw the ball of light over the trees on the left side coming down at some speed and then a massive flash.

"It was scary and amazing at the same time."