Suspected Meteor Hits Cyprus with a Bang

A suspected meteor triggered a flash of light and loud explosions in the skies over Cyprus before dawn on Friday, prompting hundreds of calls to police from alarmed residents.

There were no reports of casualties or damage from the phenomenon which was reported across a wide area of the south of the Mediterranean island between midnight and 1 am.

Authorities are now searching for space rock debris from any meteorite fall.

"We have yet to confirm that it was in fact a meteorite but it is more than likely that it was," police spokesman Andreas Angelides said.

"We have had many witness reports of a flash of light in the sky, a series of loud noises that were especially loud and heard in the districts of Nicosia and Limassol."

Police said they had received hundreds of calls from the south coast of the island and some inland areas.

They said they would continue to investigate.

The civil aviation authority said that there had been no reports of anything untoward in the skies from pilots and all flights had operated normally in the island's air space during the pre-dawn hours.

Meteors are pieces of comet or asteroid from outer space that create a fireball as they hit the Earth's atmosphere.

Those that survive the intense heat and friction and reach the surface without breaking up are known as meteorites and are sought after by scientists for the information they can give about the early solar system.