Sky turns pink in Australia town, locals think of aliens. What actually happened

A pink color glow from a cannabis plant in an Australian town turned the cloudy sky pink. (Twitter)

When the sky turned pink in Australia's northern Victorian town Mildura, residents were expectedly left spellbound, considering various eerie possibilities – from alien invasion to a portal to the spacetime continuum. Photos and videos were widely circulated on social media platforms as locals witnessed a pink glow emerging into the sky.

“All these end of the world scenarios were going through my head,” said Nike a champion, a local, speaking to BBC. “I was having a big Stranger Things moment - I'm like, Verna Is that you?” she said, referring to the villain from the popular Netflix series.

“I was on the phone to my mum, and my dad was saying the world was ending,” Tammy, another local, told British news daily The Guardian. In a rather anti-climactic reality, it was later found out that the source of the blaze on Wednesday - that filled the sky with a pink glow - had emerged from a local medicinal cannabis facility where the blackout blinds had been left open, The Guardian reported.

When the sky turned pink in Australia's northern Victorian town, Mildura, considering various eerie possibilities – from alien invasion to a portal to spacetime continuum. Photos and videos spreading on social media platforms as locals witnessed a pink glow emerging into the sky. 

All these end of the world scenarios were going through my head, said Nike a champion, a local, speaking to BBC. “I was having a big Stranger Things moment - I'm like, Verna? Is that you?” she said, referring to the villain from the popular Netflix series.

“I was on the phone to my mum, and my dad was saying the world was ending,” Tammy Szumowski, another local, told British news daily The Guardian. In a rather anti-climactic reality, it was later found out that the source of the blaze on Wednesday - that filled the sky with a pink glow - had emerged from a local medicinal cannabis facility where the blackout blinds had been left open, The Guardian reported.

“Cannabis plants require different spectrums of light in order to encourage their growth. A red spectrum light is  used. Normally the facility would have blackout blinds that come down at night, and will eventually block that glow,” explained phys Cohen, senior communications manager at CNN Group Ltd, speaking to The Guardian. The incident almost revealed the secret location of the cannabis plant. The Mildura facility recently received its GMP license to cultivate and supply a wide range of medicinal cannabis products in-house, but its location was not disclosed due to the nature of the business. The exact location of the plant still remains a secret. Medicinal cannabis legalized in Australia in 2016, but the recreational use of the drug continues to be banned.

According to reports, the Mildura facility recently received its GMP license to cultivate and supply a wide range of medicinal cannabis products in-house, but its location was not disclosed due to the nature of the business. The exact location of the plant still remains a secret.