Beach goers have been left scratching their heads after they saw a mysterious black ring floating in the air above a beach in northern China.

The UFO hovered over the crowd for a short amount of time before disppearing from view, footage shows.

Hundreds were watching on in disbelief at Jinshitan beach in Dalian, China over the weekend.

View photos The UFO was spotted by people on a Chinese beach. More

The mobile phone footage shows the object appear to change shape to rectangle before it disappeared.

One person can be heard saying "There is an unidentified flying object appearing in the sky - it's oval shape is expaning and it is coming towards us closer and closer".

However, once the video was posted online people were able to clarify what the object is.

View photos It's believe the ring was a special visual effect from an event. More

It's believed the black ring was a special visual effect from a performance at a nearby event, The Sun reports.