Canada ends search for debris from downed object: police

Canadian police have ended efforts to find debris from an aerial object shot down over its Yukon territory on February 11, saying "extraordinary search efforts" did not appear justified.

"Given the snowfall that has occurred, the decreasing probability the object will be found and the current belief the object is not tied to a scenario that justifies extraordinary search efforts, the RCMP is terminating the search," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

It said no debris had been found in "the highest probability area," despite a search that included members of the Canadian armed forces, local residents and Indigenous communities.

The announcement late Friday came on the same day the United States said it had ended its search for debris from an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off South Carolina, as well as for two other objects downed near Alaska and over Lake Huron.

The object flying over the Yukon was shot down by a US fighter jet on February 11, by joint agreement of the US and Canadian leaders, after it was determined to pose a possible threat to commercial aviation.

That event was sandwiched between the US's downing on February 10 of an object flying over northern Alaska, and two days later of an object flying over Lake Huron along the US-Canada border.

US President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that there were no indications that those two objects were linked to "China's spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles."

Large parts of the balloon downed off the Carolina coast were successfully recovered, the Pentagon said Friday, but severe weather conditions and remote locations made the search for the other -- much smaller -- objects far more difficult.

(AFP)