Sightings of a fireball blazing across the sky have been reported across the country.

Astronomy Ireland said people in the north and south witnessed the spectacle.

It is thought the fireball was a space rock travelling at a 100,000 miles per hour, or the equivalent of a small atomic bomb blast in the skies.

David Moore, of Astronomy Ireland, said: "This is a huge event."

Mr Moore said those who saw it were facing inland at the time which indicated it landed on ground and not at sea.

One man in Co Kildare who witnessed it said he thought it was an aeroplane coming out of the sky.

Valentia Coastguard said it received several calls ranging from Co Kerry, to the midlands and Northern Ireland over the sightings.

The last time a meteorite hit Ireland was in 1999 and the rock was retrieved in Co Carlow.

It sold for 500 dollars per gram, and Astronomy Ireland is urging anyone with sightings to record it on their website, astronomyireland.ie. Meteorites are fragments of rock that fall to Earth from space.

Having broken away from a larger body, they can measure anything from a fraction of a millimetre to the size of a football pitch and bigger.