A string of blue lights has been spotted in the sky near Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the local paper The Charlotte Observer.
The newspaper cited a member of the closed Facebook community "What’s Up Indian Trail?" Alisa Homewood as saying that the lights "flickered like lanterns" before disappearing.
She shared a photo of the bizarre phenomenon in which seven dim specks of light are seen lining up in the sky with three visibly larger blue-hued light clusters prominent at the centre of the configuration.
"My initial thought when I saw the lights was it was the helicopters in the distance, but as the lights got closer there was no sound. Then they went straight up into the sky and disappeared. No smoke, no debris", Homewood was quoted as saying.
Other members of the Facebook community similarly reported seeing the lights and, according to the paper, offered a variety of explanations ranging from a SpaceX rocket to UFOs.