NEW DELHI: The Indian defence forces had witnessed, over a year ago, objects similar to the alleged Chinese spy balloon busted by the American Air Force in the skies over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territories. However, unlike the Americans, no action was taken as the origin and the intent or origin of the balloon-type object were not clear.

"Quite some time back, we had witnessed the balloon-type white object over the Andamans and high-resolution pics of the object were taken by our people from ground," defence officials told ANI. However, the intent or the origin of the balloon-type object was not clear. It was also not clear whether it had come from Myanmar or China but it moved away from there after three to four days, they said.

At that time, it was also felt that it could have been a meteorological balloon as many such balloons come over India from the Pakistan side too due to winds, they said. The officials said that if such an object appears again over the Andamans or any other region, it would be studied carefully and if it is found to be a spying object, it can be brought down.

The Americans spotted many of these balloons over their skies which had come there evading multiple American chains of radars. The Americans downed one of the balloons using their F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!

Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!

Click here for iOS

Click here for Android