The United States Saturday shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had spent the past few days traversing over the country.

The controversy erupted on Thursday when US officials said they were tracking a large Chinese surveillance balloon in US skies.

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Beijing admitted ownership of the airship but said it was a weather balloon that had been blown off course.

“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

A senior defence official said was the military’s first chance to take on the balloon in a way that would not pose a threat to the safety of Americans while still allowing authorities to collect the fallen debris from US territorial waters.

US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to China’s “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty”.

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United States President’s statement

President Joe Biden, who earlier Saturday had promised to take care of the balloon, congratulated the fighter pilots involved.

“They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden told media in Maryland.

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