New Delhi: The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had been transiting across the airspace of the country for several days, BBC reported.
In a statement Saturday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said a U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully brought down the balloon at the direction of President Joe Biden.
Lloyd said the balloon was being used by the People’s Republic of China “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
The balloon was over the Carolinas at the time.
The Federal Aviation Agency, the US aviation regulator, had closed airspace around the time of the shooting and shut down three airports in preparation.
Witnesses recounted in TV interviews and on social media that they saw several fighter jets around the balloon for 30 to 40 minutes before it was shot down.
“We’re gonna take care of it,” President Joe Biden told reporters just hours before, when asked if the US will shoot down the balloon.
The balloon which was first reported by the US department of defense on Thursday marked a new spike in tensions between the US and China, with the US describing the balloon an “unacceptable” violation of US sovereignty and ed to the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s high profile visit to Beijing this week.
TV footage shows the high-altitude balloon, which is estimated to be the size of three school busses, bursting in a small explosion before falling into the water. Officials will attempt to recover the debris, according to NBC News.