Paris, Mar 10, (V7N – The European Space Agency said it is investigating a fireball that streaked across the skies of Europe over the weekend before reportedly punching a football-sized hole in the roof of a house in Germany.

The fireball, which glowed for about six seconds shortly before 7:00 pm Central European Time on Sunday, was seen by observers across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

According to the agency, the object broke apart into small meteorites as it passed through the atmosphere, with fragments reportedly striking at least one home in the German city of Koblenz.

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that a meteorite created a hole roughly the size of a football in the roof of a house in the Guels district of the city. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Witnesses across several countries said they saw the bright streak of light and some even reported hearing a roaring sound as the fireball passed overhead.

The ESA said its planetary defence team is currently analysing the available data and believes the object was likely a few metres wide.

The agency noted that objects of this size strike Earth relatively regularly, ranging from once every few weeks to once every few years.

It also said the timing and direction of the object suggested it was unlikely to have been detected by large telescope sky surveys that scan the night sky for near-Earth objects.

According to the ESA, objects of this type have only been detected 11 times before entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The event comes just days after the agency confirmed that the asteroid 2024 YR4 would not collide with Earth or the Moon in 2032.

Earlier estimates briefly gave the asteroid a 3.1 percent chance of hitting Earth, the highest probability ever assigned to such a large space object before further observations ruled out the threat.

New data from the James Webb Space Telescope has now confirmed that the asteroid will also miss the Moon.

END/WD/RH