“He said he wondered if this was a plane crash.”
One witness claimed the edge was taken off the minus 20C cold by the eerie phenomenon.
“The night got bright and warm, as if a giant light bulb was switched on in the sky’, said witness Pyotr Bondarev from Tura village.
Bondarev said: “It was about 7.30 pm, it was dark.
“I was outside having a walk with my wife and children, when the sky flashed green and yellow.
‘Many people saw it and got very excited.”