IN WHAT could be described as scenes straight from an apocalypse, the sky above a Chinese city turned blood red, sparking earthquake fears in residents.
The blood red sky shocked residents last Thursday, as the sky changed colour in the Dinghai District of Zhoushan City, located in China's Zhejiang Province at approximately 8pm.
An unidentified woman who shot the footage said after sharing the video online: "I heard that it was the lights of fishing boats, but this is the first time I have seen it."
One commented: "It feels like a nuclear explosion."
And another said: "Why does it feel a bit like the brightness of an artificial sun?"
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While one added: "I do not believe this."
Someone said: "Before earthquakes, the sky is always red."
Similar events reportedly occurred in the city's Putuo district on May 7, 2022, and in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on May 10, 2022.
After the images went viral, the Dinghai District Meteorological Bureau denied that the supernatural was behind the phenomena and confirmed that it was mostly caused by the red lights used by local fishing boats.
They said: "It is similar to the situation in 2022."
An expert from the Space Physics Research Team of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) analysed the video.
He said: "Because the lights of ocean-going fishing boats are red, the red light has a longer wavelength and strong penetrating power.
"At the same time, under the scattering effect of liquid droplets in the atmosphere, the red light will be scattered to a farther range, thus presenting an abnormally strong red light phenomenon in the sky."
It comes one month after Changsha, the capital of the Hunan Province was plunged into darkness, as heavy storms caused torrential rainfall and heavy cloud coverage.
City officials decided to turn the street lights as the heavy storm made everything as dark as night on April 29.
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One eyewitness, Mr Xiao, witnessed the pitch-black daytime while taking an order from Shaoshan South Road in Tianxin District.
He said that the rain was incredibly heavy from the black clouds but in fact, he ended up reaching the delivery point faster than usual because he had not stopped at all in order to get out of the rain and to stop the food from being spoiled.
He said: "The rain was just too heavy. I didn't stop to take shelter."
