Emergency services have been called to the Thetford area after a member of the public reported seeing a “fireball” in the sky which then crashed to the ground.

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service and Norfolk Police were called just after 2pm with reports of the sighting from a driver on the A1065.

Sam Beazley, 23, from Norfolk, said he and his mother, Jill Payne, had seen the object in the sky at around 1.45pm in between Mundford and Thetford as they travelled southbound towards the Fiveways roundabout.

“I was asleep and my mum woke me up to point out this object on fire to the left of us over Thetford Forest.

“At first she thought it must have been a flare but it was far too large and was actually changing direction in the sky, rather than just falling. It looked like it might have been being controlled somehow.

“We lost sight of it when it went below the treeline - it was just bizarre,” he said.

Mr Beazley said the object was around a quarter of a mile from the road in the direction of Thetford from Mundford.

It was in the sky for around two minutes, according to Mr Beazley.

A fire crew from Thetford was mobilised to the scene but was unable to find anything, according to a fire service spokesman. The incident has been reported as a false alarm as of 2.45pm.

Mr Beazley also reported the incident to RAF Lakenheath.

A USAF spokesman said he was not aware of any incident involving base aircraft at this point.

A spokesman for Ministry of Defence said it had not received any reports of an incident from the Stanford Training Area (STANTA) in Thetford Forest.