The United States shot down a flying object over Lake Huron, near the Canadian border

The US military shot down a flying object on Sunday over the lake ferretnear the Canada-US border, the fourth such interception by US aircraft this month, a Michigan congressman said.

the american representative Jack Bergman said on Twitter that the US military had “shot down another ‘object’ over Lake Huron. I appreciate the decisive action of our fighter pilots.”

Meanwhile, Canadian investigators are searching for the remains of an unidentified flying object that was shot down by a US plane over Yukon Territory on Saturday.

“Recovery teams are on the ground seeking to find and analyze the object,” the prime minister said. Justin Trudeau to reporters on Sunday. “The safety of citizens is our top priority and that is why I have made the decision that this unidentified object was shot down,” he said, adding that it had posed a danger to civilian aircraft.

North America has been in high alert for aerial intrusions following the appearance of a striking white Chinese aircraft over American skies earlier this month.

The 200ft-tall balloon – which Americans have accused Beijing of using to spy on the United States – sparked an international incident, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to China hours before departure .

Fear of surveillance seems to put US officials on high alert.

Twice in 24 hours, the American authorities closed the airspace, to reopen it quickly. This Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly shut down space above Lake Michigan. On Saturday, the US military sent fighter jets to Montana to investigate a radar anomaly.

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who represents a district in Michigan, said the military was watching an object “very closely” over Lake Huron, located east of Lake Michigan on the Canada-US border.

Canada also closed airspace on Sunday near Tobermory, Ontario.according to Nav Canada, a private, not-for-profit organization that operates Canada’s air traffic control system.

China denies the first balloon was used for surveillance, saying it was a civilian research craft. He condemned the United States for shooting him down off South Carolina last Saturday. Since then, at least two other flying objects have been destroyed over North America.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told US Channel ABC that US authorities believe the last two objects were also balloons. The original balloon was shot down off South Carolina on February 4. A second was shot down on the pack ice near Deadhorse, Alaska on Friday. The third was destroyed over the Yukon on Saturday.

“They think they were (balloons), yes, but much smaller than the first one,” Schumer said.

The White House only said that Recently shot objects ‘didn’t look much like’ the Chinese globeechoing Schumer’s description that they were “much smaller”.

“We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the remains, which we are working on,” a spokesperson said.

Schumer was convinced that the American researchers who criss-cross the ocean off South Carolina to recover the remains and electronics of the original balloon They will find out what it was used for.

Canadian counterparts trying to figure out what was shot down over the Yukon might have their own issues. The territory is a sparsely populated region in the far northwest of Canada, bordering Alaska. In winter, it can be very cold, but the temperatures are unusually mild for this time of year, which could aid recovery efforts.

Talk to FoxNewsChairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaulsaid the balloon shot down over the coast of South Carolina was tasked with obtain images of sensitive US nuclear facilities. “They want to get images and information about our military capability, especially nuclear,” McCaul said. “And they themselves are building a large nuclear arsenal.”

the republican legislator Mike Turner, who sits on the US House Armed Services Committee, suggested the White House may be overcompensating for what he described as lax oversight of US airspace. “They seem to be trigger-happy,” Turner told the CNN on Sunday. “I would rather they were easy to trigger than they were permissive.”

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the alleged Chinese spy balloon raid, saying it should have been shot down much sooner.

By Steve Scherer and Katharine Jackson (Reuters)

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