Meteor lights up skies over the Alps

The meteor, which was seen in the skies above Tyrol and Vorarlberg, was also visible from parts of Switzerland, Bavaria, and eastern France.

The ball of fire passed over Europe at around 9pm on Sunday night and was largely visible to the naked eye.

Witnesses told Swiss newspaper Le Matin that they saw a “flash, like a lightning bolt” and others reported hearing a dull thunder accompanying the meteor as it passed through the sky.

“The information we received clearly indicates that it was a meteorite,” said Markus Griesser from the Eschenberg Observatory in Switzerland.

The specialist says it is too early to determine where the meteorite may have crashed.

The ball of fire was caught on camera in this amateur video footage shot in Austria.

According to NASA, meteorites can vary greatly in size, ranging from “tiny grains to large boulders”.

Meteors – or shooting stars – fall through a planet’s atmosphere, leaving a streak of light as they are heated to incandescence by the friction of the atmosphere.

"Pieces that survive the journey and hit the ground are called meteorites,” says NASA.