Search teams in the Irkutsk region are on alert after eyewitnesses claimed they saw an unidentified flying object crash in the taiga in the early hours of Friday morning.

Irkustk's mayor and emergency expert groups set out for the scene of the sighting, near the village of Vitim, but a severe snow storm impeded the search operation, a local official told RIA Novosti.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Mamsko-Chuisky district administration said the object might have been a meteorite.