Anxiety gripped locals in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida on Saturday as they noticed a strange flying object in the sky, that turned out to be an Iron man-shaped balloon, PTI reported.

The object was spotted in the sky in the Dankaur area in the morning and later landed in a canal near Bhatta Parsaul village, where a crowd had gathered to see what some of them thought was “an alien”, officials said, PTI reported.

“It was a balloon filled with air that had gone up in the sky,” Dankaur SHO Anil Kumar Pandey told PTI.

It later came down and got stuck in the bushes along a canal.

“A part of the balloon was touching the flowing water in the canal which had led the balloon to shake a little. Unbeknown to the spectators, this made for an anxious watch,” the officer said.

The SHO said a major reason behind the anxiety among people was the unusual shape of the balloon.

“It was shaped like the Ironman (fictional superhero character) given its colour and design. This was an unusual sight so some people even thought it was an alien, or something like that, and were apprehensive,” Pandey said.

On Saturday, “a robot-shaped balloon was spotted, that was filled with air. It came down after losing gas,” the Noida Police tweeted.

There was nothing harmful in the object but it was yet to be ascertained who floated it in the air, the SHO said.