what the object could be, with some suggesting UFO

Resident in a Chinese village were left baffled after an unknown object had apparently fallen from the sky and left a big hole on the ground.

They said the object landed on the top of the mountain with a loud bang on December 12 in Zhangjiapan village, Shaanxi Province, reported People's Daily Online.

The crater was burning when some residents rushed over but mysteriously no object was reportedly found in the hole. Some people have linked the incident with a UFO.

Mystery: A crater was created after an unidentified object had apparently fallen from the sky

The crater reportedly measured one metre long (3.2 feet) and 50 centimetres wide (1.6 feet).

The police of Fugu county, which manages the village, said they had found objects that might be related to the incident in three locations, according to HSW.cn.

All of the locations were in the south-western part of Fugu county.

Among them, one was a large metal ring, said the police. Letters and numbers could be seen marked on the surface.

The ring is thought to have fallen at high speeds and crashed into the rooftop of a house.

The police said all the objects had been sent to experts for tests.

No injuries have been reported.

Baffled: The crater, in China's Zhangjiapan village, was burning when the villagers found it, however no object had been seen in the hole, according to local reports

Police said they had found objects that might be related to the incident in three locations. The above pictures show two of them

QQ.com posted a video on December 13, which was thought to be taken by an eyewitness.

The clip shows fire burning in the crater, however no solid object can be seen in the crater.

A villager, surnamed Zhang, told a reporter of HSW.cn that he heard a deep sound in the sky at around 1pm on Friday.

He looked up and saw an object rapidly falling towards the mountain, the villager said.

'[It] made a loud bang when it hit the ground. Then it started burning. The dry grass nearby was quickly set aflame,' Zhang added.

The police of Fugu County also found a large metal ring in the surrounding areas of the crater

The ring is thought to be related to the loud bang apparently caused by an unidentified object

Letters and numbers can be seen marked on the surface of the metal ring found by the police

The mysterious incident has attracted thousands of comments from Chinese netizens on QQ.com, a major portal in China.

Many are guessing what the object could be, with some suggesting it could be a part of a UFO.

'It must have fallen from a crashed alien spacecraft,' one such person wrote while another one said 'the ring looks like the door of a UFO cabin'.

'It must have been the wheel of an alien's vehicle,' another user suggested.

A web user asked: 'Are they parts of Shenzhou 11 spacecraft?'

'It probably came from a failed time-traveller,' another user commented.

A fourth user, apparently terrified by the incident, said: 'I will look to the sky while I am walking.'

The fire has been put out by the villagers.

The incident is being investigated by the police.