St. Petersburg residents living in the city's Vyborg and Kalininsky Districts have spotted giant light pillars in the sky, which they first mistook for Northern Lights, according to local media.
This Instagram user published a photo of the light pillars under the northern lights hashtag, saying that the admiration "cannot be expressed in words."
Another user nicknamed "daryabat" also voiced joy about a "very beautiful phenomenon" which she said she first thought was Northern Lights.
"The phenomenon, which is uncommon for St. Pete, disappeared thirty minutes after emerging," she said on her Instagram page.
Such light pillars can typically be observed in frosty weather when these vertical rays become visible due to the emergence in the air of so-called ice mist.