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US shoots down ANOTHER unidentified flying object

The US military has shot down a flying object over Lake Huron near the US-Canada border, the fourth such interception by American fighters this month.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had shot down the object on Sunday (local time).

Separately, US Representative Jack Bergman said an object had been "decommissioned".

Michigan Congressman Jack Bergman told Fox News the mysterious "octagonal" object was shot down by a US Air Force F-16 fighter jet.

According to the New York Times, White House officials have reportedly issued private assurances that there is no evidence to suggest the unidentified objects recently detected over North America are extraterrestrials.

Meanwhile, Canadian investigators are hunting for the wreckage of an unidentified flying object that was shot down by a US jet over Yukon territory on Saturday.

"Recovery teams are on the ground, looking to find and analyse the object," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Sunday.

The US has shot down a fourth object in North American airspace. Source: Getty
The US has shot down a fourth object in North American airspace. Source: Getty (file)

"The security of citizens is our top priority and that's why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down," he said, adding that it had posed a danger to civilian aircraft.

North America has been on high alert for aerial intrusions following the appearance of a white, Chinese airship over American skies earlier this month.

The 60-metre-high balloon - which Americans have accused Beijing of using to spy on the United States - caused an international incident, leading Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call off a planned trip to China only hours before he was set to depart.

Surveillance fears appear to have US officials on high alert.

Twice in 24 hours, US officials closed airspace - only to reopen it swiftly.

On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed space above Lake Michigan. On Saturday, the US military scrambled fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly there.

US Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat who represents a district in Michigan, said the military had an "extremely close eye" on an object above Lake Huron, which is east of Lake Michigan on the US-Canada border.

Canada also closed airspace on Sunday near Tobermory, Ontario, which is on Lake Huron near the US border, according to Nav Canada, a private non-profit that operates Canada's air traffic control system.

China denies the first balloon was being used for surveillance and says it was a civilian research craft. It condemned the United States for shooting it down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday.

With military and intelligence officials newly focused on airborne threats, at least two other flying objects have since been destroyed over North America.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told US broadcaster ABC that US officials think the two latest objects were also balloons.

The original balloon was brought down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. A second was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, on Friday. The third was destroyed over the Yukon on Saturday.

"They believe they were (balloons), yes, but much smaller than the first one," Schumer said.

The White House said only that the recently downed objects "did not closely resemble" the Chinese balloon, echoing Schumer's description of them as "much smaller".

Schumer said he was confident US investigators scouring the ocean off South Carolina to recover debris and electronic gadgetry from the original balloon would get to the bottom of what it was being used for.

Canadian counterparts trying to piece together what was shot down over the Yukon may have their own challenges.

The territory is a sparsely populated region in Canada's far northwest, which borders Alaska. It can be brutally cold in the winter, but temperatures are unusually mild for this time of year which could ease the recovery effort.

Reuters

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