London, Apr 17 (IANS): A large, mysterious flaming object was spotted over the UK skies, leaving behind a trail of smoke that stayed for 20 minutes, a media report said on Friday.

The large flaming object was spotted spiralling in the sky at around 8 p.m. on Thursday by a man in Cambridgeshire, said the Metro newspaper report.

"It looked like a very thick chemtrail to start with. It looked like a short, skinny cloud. It wasn't moving quickly at all. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a meteorite, because they are gone in seconds," the newspaper quoted the man as saying.

"We have seen hundreds of shooting stars, but this definitely wasn't that either. This was coming down very slowly and spiralling. It started to glow orange," he said, adding that "there were flames coming out of the back of it as well".

The man took several pictures of the burning entity dropping through the sky, in which a huge trail can be seen behind it as it descends into the distance.

He said he was watching the unidentified object fall through the sky for "between 10 and 20 minutes", as it was coming down slowly.

Eventually, the burning mass disappeared.