WATCH: Mysterious bright flash in Florida sky sparks ‘UFO invasion’ fears

Several residents on Florida’s western coast thought they were being invaded by aliens when a mysterious bright light appeared in the night sky.

Local police received calls asking if a UFO was invading the Earth when the light flashed. However, it soon turned out the fireball was actually a small meteor.

Josh Stone, a meteorologist at WWSB TV in Sarasota, said the fireball “looked as bright as the sun” and that he “heard a little rumbling after it faded away,” according to The Sun.

“A baseball-sized meteor entered the atmosphere around 11:18pm on Monday night, moving at the speed of 40,000 miles (over 64,000 kilometers) per hour,” reported NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The North Port Police Department captured the phenomenon on two of its patrol cars.