A mysterious unlit vessel has been filmed speeding on the River Thames under the cover of darkness. The unidentified object was spotted by Emanuele Biasiol, 31, as he was having a cigarette on his balcony in the Isle of Dogs on Tuesday night.
Footage appears to show an unlit vessel travelling at high speed and creating wash, as it travels southbound towards Greenwich on the River Thames.
Witness describes strange encounter
Emanuele said: 'I was sat on my balcony having a cigarette and I noticed a boat was going by really quickly compared to usual, just out of the corner of my eye.'
'I'm used to seeing that sometimes with military exercise boats or police boats, so I looked up briefly, because I was expecting to see one go by – and then I didn't see any lights on. That's when it caught my attention, I found that really strange.'
'I initially thought it was a private boat used recklessly, so I looked over. But when it went past I realised it was too small to be a boat, there was no-one on it, there were no lights – that's when I got my phone out to film it.'
'It was very quiet – I could hear the sound of the water splashing as it went by, but I couldn't hear a loud engine noise as I would expect if it was a jet ski or a small boat.'
Police report and helicopter sighting
Emanuele said he phoned police to report what he saw, but a call handler told him to report it as suspicious activity using a form online. His suspicions were further aroused when he heard a military helicopter overhead minutes later.
Data from aircraft tracking website ADS-B Exchange shows that an RAF Chinook helicopter flew over the area at an altitude of around 1,350 ft just five minutes later before following the course of the Thames west to Putney. It has not been confirmed if the appearance of the helicopter is related to the mystery ship.
Possible autonomous vessel
Around 10 minutes after seeing the vessel, Emanuele posted the footage on Reddit, with users saying the object looked similar to the autonomous Kraken K3 Scout vessel – an unmanned surface vehicle designed for military use. However, Emanuele said he is not convinced that what he saw is the K3 Scout – as he thinks the vessel looked much smaller than its advertised 8.4-metre (27.5 ft) length.
He said: 'When I looked over while it was directly underneath my balcony, just before I started filming, I thought it was dark grey, or matt grey – that's what looked recognisable to me. The way it's moving, I've seen videos of the company on their website, and it looks like it's moving in the same way.'
'But someone pointed out that those vehicles are like nine metres long, and it was definitely not nine metres long. It looks exactly like one of those [K3 Scouts], but the dimensions seem off.'
Emanuele has now been contacted by the Met's terrorism squad asking for more information on what he saw. The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.
