Mysterious lights over ocean have people ‘freaking out’ in California city

A mysterious pattern of up to five orange lights over the ocean of San Diego left residents baffled, California photos and videos show.

“We are totally … absolutely freaking out,” said one man in a video posted to Twitter. “We do not know what this is.”

The lights appeared in the sky about 9 p.m. Monday, June 27, KGTV reported.

San Diego police told KNSD that lifeguards reported the lights were flares used in a military exercise.

But two nearby military bases told KFMB they did not know the origin of the lights. Others suggested they were drones practicing for an upcoming Imperial Beach fireworks show, but police there said they also did not know what caused the lights.

Observers described them as yellow-orange lights in a pattern. Some of the lights occasionally seemed to blink on and off.

People from San Diego to Chula Vista and Encinitas reported seeing the lights, KFMB reported.

“They never went off in different directions, but the lights would just blink off on a few and then come back on a few minutes later,” one observer told KNSD, which reported the lights were seen from as far away as Tijuana and La Jolla.

“Ok they just got into some new tighter formation now … is that a bad sign?” wrote another viewer on Twitter with a video of the lights.

This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Mysterious lights over ocean have people ‘freaking out’ in California city."