Mysterious flashing light and loud ‘boom’ shocks Doreen, Mernda residents

Video has captured a bright orange light and an explosive sound which startled residents in Doreen and some neighbouring suburbs on Wednesday night.

Mystery has rocked residents in Melbourne’s northeastern suburbs as they try to determine what caused a loud explosive noise that rattled their neighbourhood overnight.

Video captured by CCTV cameras from a house in Doreen shows an orange light flash in blink or you miss it speed, before a booming sound is heard seconds later.

Hundreds of residents took to social media just before 9pm to report the noise, which was mostly heard in Doreen and neighbouring suburb Mernda.

“Ok!! So we all heard the loud bang. Now there must be someone that knows what the heck it was,” one resident said.

“I got the fright of my life and thought it was in my back yard. Sounded like something hit my roof,” another local responded.

Meanwhile others added they heard it as far as Burnside Heights, which is in the state’s northwest.

Several people added the frightening noise was shortly followed by multiple sirens and the sound of helicopters hovering above.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said units were called to the vicinity of Hazel Glen Drive in Doreen about 9pm, following reports of a sound of an explosion.

“Officers patrolled the surrounding area but were unable to locate a scene or the source of the noise,” they said.

Meanwhile, an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said paramedics were called to the suburb of Doreen about the same time, but were later “cancelled off” as they weren’t required.

The Herald Sun has also contacted Fire Rescue Victoria for comment.

While the source of the mysterious noise remains unknown, several theories have emerged about what it could have been.

Some suspect the sound and flash of light could be due to a meteor, while others have suggested it was caused by a power transformer or gas main blowing up.

Astrophysicist Clare Kenyon told the Herald Sun space objects, like meteors or space junk, that pass the earth’s atmosphere can create a flash of light or “boom” as heard in Doreen on Wednesday night.

“When a piece of space junk – or even something natural like a chunk of space rock – is pulled towards Earth, it’s moving really quickly and then basically slams into the atmosphere, creating a kind of sonic boom,” she said.

“The friction from Earth’s atmosphere is immense and causes the material to break apart and burn causing lingering bright streaks of light across the sky.”

Mysterious explosion and flashing light rocks residents in Doreen, Mernda.

An orange flash was seen (pictured) before the loud boom was heard which rattled residents.

The science communicator and teaching specialist at the University of Melbourne also said for the booming sound to be heard, it means the object would be burning relatively close to the earth’s surface.

”The last pieces would have been burning up quite close to the ground – within a few kilometres in altitude,” she said.

“This is relatively uncommon and is probably a result of the large amount of material that re-entered, taking time to fragment and burn up as it raced down to Earth.”

The strange noise comes just over than a fortnight after another mysterious “loud bang” rocked Bentleigh East.

Residents in the area were woken just before midnight on October 3 by a similar explosive sound which shook houses and sent a “bright light” through windows.

It’s still not know what caused the sound, which was also heard in Carnegie.