MUMBAI: A large metal ring and sphere that villagers in rural western India said fell from the sky over the weekend could be from a Chinese rocket launched into space last year, officials told local media.

The metal ring — reportedly two to three metres (6.5-10 feet) in diameter and weighing over 40 kilogrammes (90 pounds) — was discovered in a village field in Maharashtra state late on Saturday, district collector Ajay Gulhane told the Press Trust of India.

“We were preparing a community feast, when the sky blazed with the red disc which fell with a bang on an open plot in the village,” an unnamed woman in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district told The Times of India. “People ran to their home fearing (an) explosion and remained inside for nearly half an hour.”

Another object — a large, metal ball around half a metre (1.5 feet) in diameter — fell in another village in the district, Gulhane told PTI.