No official explanations for darkness over swathes of Yakutia amid conspiracy theories of a UFO, new weapons tests, a meteorite, or pollution from wildfires.

Picture: Social media; The Siberian Times.

The territory impacted by the mysterious gloom is larger than Italy.

Day suddenly turned to night around noon on Friday, and for almost three hours locals needed torches to see where they were going.

The area hit by the bizarre darkness now appears more extensive than first reported when it was said to have covered Eveno-Bytantaisky and Zhigansky districts of Russia’s coldest region - Yakutia.

Now reports say the sun dimmed in Verkhoyansky too.

The territory impacted by the mysterious gloom is larger than Italy.

The darkness had a ‘yellow’ tinge, or was associated with dust clouds, say various versions.

Some blamed the work of the devil but the main assumption initially was that smoke from raging wildfires in other districts had blotted out the sun.

Yet some official sources have expressed doubts over this theory without explaining what caused the weird phenomenon.

Into this vacuum locals have swapped theories on WhatsApp and other social media over the cause of the darkness like an eclipse - except there wasn’t one.

Another source said: ‘This can only be explained by a UFO.’

A local resident in from Eveno-Bytantaisky said:

‘Messages are going around about about a light flash registered by the US satellites, followed by increase of radioactive level and unusual activity of the  military. 

‘We are never going to be told is this was true or false.’

Another source said: ‘This can only be explained by a UFO.’

An official in Nizhne-Bytantaisky settlement  contradicted residents who had reported a thick layer of dust after the cloud and darkness vanished.

’There was no dust,’ he said.. 

‘At first it looked like it was a strong thunderstorm coming. 

‘The air went dark, and got darker and darker, but this time unlike anything else we have seen before the darkness had a rich yellow undertone. 

‘It was very unusual. 

The sun turned red in Yakutsk because of the wildfires raging in the republic. Picture: @foro_by_oleg7

‘We doubt the solar eclipse version. 

‘Usually weather stations and media inform everyone about eclipses in advance. 

‘And no eclipse can last this long.’

Konstantin Starostin, head of the settlement, said: ‘When the Sun vanished, people started calling us in the administration. 

‘Many got scared, specially elderly people. 

‘People who live here for many years said they had never witnessed anything like this.’ 

‘The darkness was pitch black. 

‘It didn’t come at once, but grew gradually. 

‘The Sun was gone from 11.30 until 14.00 on Friday 20 July.'

‘The air went dark, and got darker and darker, but this time unlike anything else we have seen before the darkness had a rich yellow undertone.'

‘There was no dust. Many were coming outside, so many witnesses can confirm that there was no dust. 

‘There was no sharp decrease in air temperature either as it happened. But on that night the air dropped down to -4C.

‘We don’t know what to think. 

‘We have no experts, and rumours keep growing.

‘If this was linked to some kind of military tests, I would say so.’

The Sun didn’t ‘leave’ all Arctic Yakutia districts. 

Head of Verkhoyansk town Yevgeny Potapov said that ‘the sun didn’t disappear, but something strange happened on that day.’

The territory engulfed by the fire this morning was estimated as about 1,200,000 hectares.

'There was something looking like smoke on 20 July. At least this is what we decided. We didn’t have nearby wildfires, but there was one at the border with Eveno-Bytantaisky ulus. 

‘It was as if the day has gone overcast, as if the sun was covered with a cloud, or not a cloud… but there was no rain’, Potapov said. 

‘We didn’t know what was happening to our neighbours’, Potapov added. 

‘We thought stories about no sun were rumours, but then we realised these were not.

‘We are also trying to guess as to what could have this possibly been.’

Yet there has been no clarification from meteorological, defence, or other deferral officials.

‘We get warnings about eclipses,’ he said, indicating there had been no such alert.

‘It could have been a meteorite, but surely not that big.

‘This is really unclear.’

Evidently almost all Arctic districts reported a significant temperature fall.