Local residents claim to have seen an unidentified, extremely bright flying object exploding into smaller fragments over the skies of Tijuana, southern Mexico, on Christmas Day.

UFO enthusiasts were quick to term the mysterious object, captured on film, a "mothership". Footage depicts a glowing object moving fast over the skies near the Mexico-United States border between Tijuana and San Diego. The object exploded into thousands of pieces but the central mass continued to fly around.

UFO watchers are excited by the duration of the alleged phenomenon and the quality of the video footage. According to a post on the social networking site NewsGather.com, witnesses described the object as an "orb" and a "mothership" which can survive an explosion and stay aloft, hover and maintain contact with the "orbs" thrown around from its central mass.

In an unprecedented move, Mexico's ministry of defence recognised the UFO phenomenon as a fact in 2004. The decision followed an alleged episode where a Mexican Air Force plane, military pilots and officials had a confrontation with several UFOs while doing a routine anti-drug surveillance patrol.

Several UFO sightings were reported from and around Mexico in recent years.

Mexico