Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said he ordered a US warplane to shoot down an unidentified object that was flying high over northern Canada, acting a day after US planes took similar action over Alaska.

Shortly before Mr Trudeau’s tweet, the North American Aerospace Defence Command said it had detected an object flying at high altitude over Canada.

Norad gave no further information, including when the object was first spotted or what it is.

On Twitter, Mr Trudeau said: “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object.”

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The object was the third known to have violated North American airspace in the past two weeks.

In a second tweet, Mr Trudeau said: “I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyse the wreckage of the object. Thank you to Norad for keeping the watch over North America.”

A suspected Chinese spy balloon spent nearly a week flying through Canadian and US airspace before it was shot down by US warplanes last Sunday.

The US military shot down a second object in Alaskan airspace on Friday, though authorities have not provided details on what it was. – AP