US Shoots Down Chinese Surveillance Balloon Over Atlantic

The United States (US) on Saturday shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. The suspected surveillance balloon, which entered from Canada, was taken down as it crossed continental America after hovering over its skies from Montana to South Carolina.

"This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, US fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People's Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin said in a statement on Saturday.

Austin said the balloon, which China was using in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental US, was brought down above US territorial waters. On Wednesday, the defense secretary said, US President Joe Biden gave his authorisation to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon's path.  

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