A giant "UFO fragment" has fallen from the sky near a remote village in Siberia, Russian media have reported.

The U-shaped object, resembling a silvery dome, is currently under inspection by Russian experts, after being covertly removed under cover of night from the possession of villagers who found it.

After discovering the device on Sunday, locals from the village of Otradnesnky had managed to drag the “UFO fragment” from the thick forest where it had fallen. They attached it onto a trailer and took it through the snow to their village, where local inspectors then examined it before alerting Moscow authorities.

In an official statement, Sergey Bobrov, who found the object, agreed to keep it safe.

But following their stealthy removal of the 200-kilogram metal fragment, police have it under close guard, on orders from unnamed authorities.

The device has not had its provenance confirmed as of yet. However, the object does not come from a rocket or missile or be in any way associated with terrestrial space technology, it has been announced.

“The object found is not related to space technology. A final conclusion can be made after a detailed study of the object by experts,” said Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

Experts have also examined the object to determine whether it poses a hazard.

“We measured the radiation level near and inside the object. We found no radiation here,” said Yuri Bornyakov, who heads the rescue service department of the Kuybyshevsky district in the Novosibirsk region.

Part of the fragment is made of ultra-strong titanium, said Valery Vasiliev, the head of the Kuybyshevsky Department for Civil Defence and Emergency Situations.

Speculation that it had come from a bungled Kazakhstan rocket or satellite launch was also denied.

“You can see inside it, all is open, it’s empty, no danger here. We were asked to take and store it. We brought it here. And now we are going to wait until they come to take it if they need it,” said local police spokesman Sergei Sulein.