China spy balloon: US Navy releases photos of debris

The US Navy has released photos of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was changeable retired of the entity connected Saturday.

The US Fleet Forces Command posted respective photos connected its Facebook leafage showing ample debris of the balloon being hauled into a boat.

The station said the sailors retrieving the debris connected Sunday were portion of the Navy's specializer explosives team.

The instrumentality volition present beryllium examined to spot whether it was so spy equipment.

China has repeatedly insisted that the "airship is for civilian usage and entered the US owed to unit majeure - it was wholly an accident."

The find of the balloon acceptable disconnected a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken instantly calling disconnected a play travel to China - the archetypal specified precocious level US-China gathering determination successful years - implicit the "irresponsible act".

The balloon was retrieved disconnected the seashore of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a time aft being changeable down by a combatant jet.

The navy said the debris was dispersed implicit 7 miles (11km) of the Atlantic Ocean, and 2 naval ships - including 1 with a dense crane for betterment - were sent to the area. However, the photos uncover the piles of balloon worldly were capable to beryllium pulled aboard by hand.

US defence officials archetypal announced they were tracking the unusual entity connected Thursday, and waited until it was safely implicit h2o earlier shooting it down.

Colombia's Air Force says an identified entity - believed to beryllium a balloon - was detected connected 3 February successful the country's airspace astatine supra 55,000ft.

It says it followed the entity until it near the airspace, adding that it did not correspond a menace to nationalist security.