Russian federal officials remain silent amid widespread news that the sun disappeared for nearly three hours over remote rural districts in Siberia.
July is one of the best times to catch the sun in the republic of Yakutia, a Russian region blanketed in snow for more than half the year.
However, residents were astounded to find that a thick blanket of dark haze crept over the sun on the afternoon of July 20, leaving the districts of Eveno-Bytantaysky and Zhigansky in pitch-black darkness, according to a report by regional news website Yakutia 24.
The neighboring district Verkhoyansk was also said to have been covered in darkness, creating an area larger than Italy where the sun appeared to have been eclipsed by some unidentified object.
Russian authorities have, up to now, provided zero explanation as to what could have caused the darkness over the three districts in the country's northeastern region. Details of the event remain contradictory, with local residents and officials providing varying accounts of what happened.
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