But this is alarming.

What has an official at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India, so alarmed? UFOs were spotted multiple times recently over and around this major international airport. How alarmed are airport officials? Enough that government security agencies are on high alert and the Indian Air Force is authorized to shoot down any unidentified objects. What’s going on?

The Hindustan Times reports that on October 27th, an air traffic controller reported seeing a UFO but nothing showed up on any equipment. A few days later on October 30th, an Air Force officer on duty in the air traffic control tower reported seeing three UFOs over a runway and near the airport in an 11 minute time span. An Air Force helicopter was summoned but found nothing.

After the second incident, the Intelligence Bureau, the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Delhi Police, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) held an emergency meeting and gave the Indian Air Force the UFO shoot-down order.

UFO seen in Kanpur, India, this past summer

Why is the Indian government reacting so strongly to these UFO sightings? Do they know something about these UFOs that they don’t want the public to find out? UFO sightings are on the rise across India. A well-reported sighting occurred in Kanpur, India, over the summer when a young boy took very clear photographs of a saucer-shaped UFO. In September, a UFO was photographed over flood-ravaged areas of the Assam state in northeast India. That’s near the area where stories persist of an underground UFO base hidden in the Himalayas. Then there’s the mysterious piece of “space junk” that’s predicted to hit the Indian Ocean in November on Friday the 13th.

A UFO seen over New Delhi on April 28, 2014

The Indian government may have also been jumpy because New Delhi was hosting the India–Africa Forum Summit where Indian leaders were meeting with the heads of 14 African countries to discuss topics ranging from climate change to terrorism. Were they fearful the UFOs were drones sent sent by humans to disrupt the forum … or by aliens?

As of this writing, no UFOs had been shot down or intercepted by the Indian Air Force and no further sightings were reported. But this reaction by the Indian officials brings up the obvious question … what will happen the next time?