The Naga Fireballs
Once a year, glowing red balls rise silently out of the Mekong River and vanish into the night sky.
What was reported
Every year, around the full moon in October that marks the end of Buddhist Lent, people along the Mekong in Thailand and Laos watch reddish balls of light rise from the river. They climb silently for a few hundred metres and disappear. Local belief says they are breathed out by the naga, a serpent that lives in the river.
The event draws large crowds, especially to Phon Phisai district in Nong Khai province, and has become a major festival.
Explanations offered
One explanation is gas from rotting matter in the riverbed igniting as it reaches the air, though scientists have not shown how this could happen on a schedule. In 2002, a Thai television team filmed soldiers on the Lao side of the river firing tracer rounds into the sky during the festival. Many locals reject both explanations.
- When
- Every year, at the end of Buddhist Lent
- Where
- Mekong River, Nong Khai, Thailand
- Witnesses
- Thousands of spectators every year
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.