Standing at the White House podium on Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sought to reassure the American public about the three targets the US had shot down in recent days.

“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens,” Kirby said about the unidentified flying objects that were taken out over the weekend — over Alaska on Friday, Canada’s Yukon on Saturday and Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.

Kirby was not the first US official to confront questions about extraterrestrials. A day earlier, General Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), which has taken centre stage in recent operations, said he had “not ruled anything out” in determining the nature and origin of the objects.