Meteor shower reported in parts of the UK. Image: Twitter

Hundreds of people across the UK witnessed bright objects shooting across the night sky on 21 September.

Sightings of huge fireballs, thought to be a meteor shower, were reported in northern England, central Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Witnesses described seeing a bright fireball shooting across the sky with a large bright tail.

Many people took to Twitter to post photos, videos and comments on the sightings.

The UK Met Office tweeted, "Hi all, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite", while some speculated that it could be space junk burning up in the atmosphere.

The Kielder Observatory in Northumberland also reported sighting huge fireballs streaking from east to west at 9:41pm. It reported nearly 100 bright fragments shooting across the sky.

"Many many fragments maybe in excess of 100 pieces started green went yellow. No sound but long, obvious termination lasted 20-30 seconds," an observatory staff member told The Telegraph.

Several people called the Coast Guard and police and reported bright objects falling from the sky, describing them as anything from a crashing plane to a UFO.

Tim O'Brien, associate director of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, said the object could be space junk burning up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Twitter