'Alarming' mystery drones scare locals in the US

A rash of unexplained drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey has left locals rattled and sent US officials scrambling for answers.

Breathless local news reports have amplified the anxious sky-gazing and wild speculation -- interspersing blurry, dark clips from social media with irate locals calling for action.

For weeks now, the distinctive blinking lights and whirling rotors of large unmanned aerial vehicles have been spotted across the state west of New York.

Sam Lugo, 23, who works in the Club Studio gym in New Jersey's Bergen county, one of the corners of the state that has seen several drone sightings, called the reports "crazy."

"It's pretty concerning they were sighted... without explanation. It can be alarming," he said.

The White House said the sightings featured in a briefing received by President Joe Biden, while National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there was "no evidence" of a threat -- and that they may be manned aircraft.

"There's just no indication that this is some sort of foreign, malign activity -- or, in fact, even criminal," Kirby said.

But social media users have been adamant they have seen outsized drones.

"I've seen them every night since Thanksgiving, they're smaller than my Jeep," wrote X user Gus Seretis.

"They hover just about tree height or a little higher," he added, describing them as like aircraft too small for a pilot and vowing to "shoot at one if it comes low enough."

New Jersey congressman Chris Smith wrote to the Pentagon on Tuesday demanding answers.

Smith said he had been told that more than a dozen drones pursued a coastguard lifeboat over the weekend.

The Pentagon, the nerve centre of the US military, insists the objects are not "US military drones."

"Our initial assessment is that this is not the work of a foreign adversary or a foreign entity," said deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.

Singh also rejected claims by a Republican lawmaker that Washington's foe, Tehran was behind the spate of sightings.

"There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there's no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States," she said.

Witnesses stress that the unexplained aerial objects are larger than those commonly used by drone enthusiasts.

"I don't want to get abducted or anything like that," said Lugo with a smile.

AFP