Fireball over Durham, England
© Steven Woolcock
His son thought the "Russians were coming".

And dad Steven Woolcock admits he's puzzled by a 'fireball' which flew over Stanley on Sunday evening.

His footage shows a bright object flying high above the County Durham sky.


"I thought it may have been a plane at first, but you couldn't see any sort of shape - just a streak," said the 35-year-old.

"I checked Flight Radar and there was a plane going over at 45,000ft at that time, but not where we were."

Baffled, Steven contacted experts to try and get to the bottom of it.

"I reported it to the UK Meteor Observation Network (UKMON) and gave all the details, like the speed and size," he said.

"They've said it could be space debris or something like that, but my son thought the Russians were coming and thought it was a missile!"

Other suggestions include a comet, with Steven joking: "It could be anything - even a UFO!"

The 19-second clip was shot near Stanley town centre.

Steven stopped on his way back from visiting his mother-in-law to film it.

And he added: "It was a nice thing to see as it was very pretty."

A report to UKMON, seen by Chronicle Live, shows the yellow fireball travelled "from down right to up left".

Reports of meteors have skyrocketed in recent years.

Data on the UKMON network recorded 40,685 single meteors and 7,692 unified observations in 2016.

In 2012, just over 1,000 meteors were reported to the organisation.

Often called 'shooting stars', typically they are parts of space rocks which break off and burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere.