Watch live: White House national security spokesman John Kirby holds a news conference alongside Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre after the US shoots down fourth flying object
'There was a real risk to safety here'
"We were able to determine that China has a high altitude balloon programme for intelligence that's connected to the People's Liberation Army," he adds. "We did assess that their altitudes were considerably lower than the Chinese high-altitude balloon and did pose a threat to civilian commercial air traffic," he says.
"Obviously there is some sort of pattern in there, the fact we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention," he said.At 6pm, there will be a live news briefing from the White House on the unidentified flying objects shot down after entering US airspace.
He said at a daily briefing:"It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries. It has accused the US of overreacting by shooting it down and threatened to take unspecified action in response.Here, we take a look at when and where the four objects were shot down, and what we know so far...The first object, described by US officials as a suspected Chinese"spy" balloon, was first spotted by US air defence systems flying towards Alaska from the Bering Sea.
Again, US F-22 jets tracked the object, while Canadian CF-18 fighters and CP-140 maritime patrol craft also joined the operation. "I want people to know that we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe," Mr Sunak told reporters during a visit to Greater Manchester.
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