A meteor streaked over Scotland Monday and was caught on camera as it lit up the skies, alarming residents who described it as a “fireball.”

The event took place around 6:45 p.m. local time, illuminating the skies over the cities of Aberdeen and Inverness, reports The Independent.

An influx of calls came into the local police station with many people reporting the spectacular flash and the loud rumble that accompanied it, Sky News reports. According to a spokeswoman for Police Scotland, one caller said they heard a loud bang and others said their homes shook.

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“We have checked and been told it was likely a meteor shower,” the spokeswoman added. Several people reportedly saw it burn up in the atmosphere right above Perthshire.

“What you’ve seen is a piece of rock from outer space that has crashed into the earth,” St. Andrews University professor Keith Horne told BBC.com. “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.”

Horne believes that the meteor was probably about 3 inches wide, with the rumbling sound coming from a sonic boom, and that the flash was caused by its speed of about 18 miles per second. He added that it probably burnt up while at an altitude of 20 miles, with no remaining pieces of it reaching the Earth.

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Garry J. Hunter described the flash to BBC.com as “a huge fireball-like trail across the sky, which seemed to then explode and light up the whole sky.”

Jenni Morrison was driving home with her son when they saw the flash, which she managed to capture with dash-cam footage while driving on the A944 road in Aberdeenshire, according to BBC.com.

“It was the most surreal thing I have ever experienced. 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,” said Morrison. “We didn’t realize what it was until we looked back on my dash cam. 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.”

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Social media began buzzing as people wondered what the bright streak could have been. Some suspected it was an astronomical event while others believed it was military activity.

The Ministry of Defense has said it would not discuss whether or not the event was related to any ongoing operations in that area.

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