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This article was published in the daily newspaper newspaper al-Watan, Saudi Arabia, on June 8, 2003.
Note: Similar accounts appeared on various newswires of arab news agencies. Here, unidentified flying object means unidentified flying object, not extraterretrial spacecraft, unless proven otherwise later.
An unidentified flying object fell to Earth in the southern Jizan region last Monday, and experts believed it could be part of a spy plane that invaded Saudi airspace.
Witnesses told the daily newspaper al-Watan that the object looked like a flying saucer and radiated light.
A number of people in the town of Raith, about 220 kilometers northeast of Jizan, watched the strange object fall at about 9 a.m. on Monday.
The fall of the object sent shock waves through the area and frightened cattle. People ran away from the object and observed it from a distance.
Abdul Rahman al-Osaimi, governor of Raith, told the Arabic daily that he visited the area where the object had fallen, adding that it had frightened the residents.
"The object was not big, but it scared the people," the governor said.
Informed sources told al-Watan that security officers visited the site to inspect the object and interview witnesses.
Salman al-Raithi, a resident of Raith, told the newspaper that he had watched the object flying at low altitude and then fall on the ground.
Wadi Amoud [the sector where the town of Raith is] has seen a number of strange incidents over the years. Once it witnessed the emergence of poisonous black water from a well, which the superstitious used to treat diseases, forcing the Saudi authorities to cover the well.
