A mysterious giant object has washed up on a remote beach in Australia, puzzling local people, officials and police.
Officers from the Western Australia Police Force have been guarding the strange gold-coloured cylinder since it was found. They asked people to stay away from it until it was removed from the beach.
The large metal object showed up on a beach near Western Australia's Green Head.
The police say they have launched an investigation into the matter.
"We want to reassure the community that we are working with various state and federal agencies to determine the object's origin," the police said.
Meanwhile, the Australian Space Agency said that the object may have fallen from a foreign rocket.
"We are making enquiries related to this object on a beach in Western Australia," they said. "The object could be from a foreign space launch vehicle and we are talking to our partners who may be able to provide more information."
The space agency also warned that people should not handle or try to move the object.
Police say they don't think the object came from an aircraft.
Local man Garth Griffiths told Australia's ABC News that his neighbour told him about the mystery object. He estimated it to be about three metres long and two metres wide.
"Sometime yesterday, a lady and her partner discovered it just floating on the edge of the water, and they dragged it out with their four-wheel-drive car," he said.
Curious children started digging sand castles around the object.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas says that the object could be a fuel tank from a rocket that fell into the Indian Ocean last year.
