WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - A bright fireball streaked across the skies in the Washington region late on Tuesday night (April 16).

People throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia indicated that it seemed close to them.

"Did anyone else just see the fireball in the sky in Ellicott City/Marriottsville?!!" someone asked on Twitter around 11pm.

Many people apparently did, throughout the region.

A man in the District reported "a huge bright Fireball with bright blue fire falling very close to Capitol Hill at around 11.30pm.

" In a message to a reporter, Kumar Shrestha said he was certain that a search of the area might find its remnants.

"It was very very close," he said.

A woman in the Arlington area exclaimed as follows in a tweet "Guys!! That was a #FIREBALL that just came shooting through the sky- going due South along the #Potomac."

An Alexandria resident said she saw a large fireball "fall from the" sky.

The American Meteor Society, a clearinghouse for fireball reports, listed a dozen from Maryland and Virginia. Reports were also received at about the same time from other parts of the country.

Estimates of sighting times ranged from about 10.45pm to 11.30pm EDT (10.45am to 11.30am on Wednesday, Singapore time).

Several fireball photos were posted on Twitter feeds late on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Some of the reports to the meteor society indicated that the fireball made a relatively small visual impact.

The accounts classed the experience as only one on a scale of five.

However, a witness in Fairfax County rated it as a three.