The governments of Canada and the United States announced that an unidentified object was shot down by a US F-22 fighter jet in Canadian airspace.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday that the object that violated Canadian airspace was shot down over the Yukon territory in the northwestern part of the country.

Later, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said at a news conference that an aircraft assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, successfully took down the high altitude airborne object.

She added that the cylindrical object "was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet" or about 12,000 meters.

The minister also explained that it was downed because it "posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight."

Anand added that "it appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than" the Chinese balloon that was downed off the US state of South Carolina.

She said that it was similar in appearance to the downed balloon, saying that Canadian forces will recover and analyze the wreckage.

US Department of Defense says NORAD detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening and that two fighter jets monitored and tracked it. NORAD is a US-Canada bi-national organization that defends North American airspace.

The Pentagon said in a statement that they continued to monitor on Saturday, together with Canadian fighter aircraft, as the object crossed into Canadian airspace.

It added that President Joe Biden authorized the downing of the object, following a call with the Canadian prime minister.

This follows the downing of another unidentified object by US forces on Friday over US territorial waters in northern part of the state of Alaska.