The Associated Press

People throughout the Midwest called police after seeing a flash of bright blue light in the midnight sky.

The National Weather Service said it was likely that either a meteorite or piece of space debris broke up.

People in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio called police agencies about 1 a.m. EST Thursday to report seeing a bright blue light in the sky. Sgt. Jeff Mangiaracina with the Sheriff's Department in Will County, Ill., said he received calls from as far away as Wisconsin.

National Weather Service offices in Indianapolis, Chicago and Wilmington, Ohio, reported receiving calls about the object.

Jim Kaplan with the Romeoville, Ill., office of the Weather Service said he was outside checking a rain gauge when he saw a flash of light in the sky.

"First, it got very bright and the sky lit up," Kaplan said. "You could see something streaking across the sky and breaking up into glowing chunks as it went from west to east."

"We've got no official classification as to what it was," Weather Service meteorologist Casey Sullivan said.

In a suburb south of Chicago several homes were struck by what appeared to be chunks of meteorite. The falling objects pierced the roofs of two homes and the Park Forest fire station, but no one was injured, said Park Forest Police Capt. Francis DioGuardi.

"We have recovered several fallen objects," he said. "They look like rocks. One of them is the size of a shot put."

He said one chunk slightly damaged a home after landing on a residential street and breaking apart.

Meteorologist Greg Tipton in the Wilmington, Ohio, weather service office, said he heard reports that some debris hit the ground north of Cincinnati. "But we haven't nailed that down," he said.