New shiny obelisk sighted at Britain's Isle of Wight

A shiny obelisk similar to ones found in the United States and on a hilltop in Romania has been spotted by the sea off the south coast of England.

The gleaming pyramid-topped pillar was discovered on Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight early on Sunday morning, drawing large crowds and sparking speculation about how it got there.

A similar-looking reflective structure appeared briefly in the Utah desert late last month, then two others cropped up in southern California and Romania days later.

The initial discovery fuelled the imaginations of UFO spotters, conspiracy theorists and fans of the classic sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey" which features a strange alien monolith.

An anonymous art collective has taken credit for the Utah installation but no one has claimed responsibility for those in Romania and the Isle of Wight.

In Romania, some locals dismissed it as a poorly made replica while on Compton Beach locals were initially curious but suspected a similar copycat.

"The person who put it there knows what they're doing," said Tom Dunford, who stumbled on the 7.5-foot-high (2.2-metre) mirrored object as he walked his dog on Sunday morning.

"It's someone playing a practical joke. I don't believe in any of these conspiracy theories," he told Sky News television.

Isle of Wight resident Alexia Fishwick called it "incredibly graceful" but told the BBC: "Many people walked past it and ignored it."