Massive Samsung drone show with colourful whirring lights ‘mistaken for UFO’ – and passerbys cry ‘call the Men In Black’

STUNNED Londoners got a ‘close encounter’ of the drone kind as a ‘spaceship’ appeared over the River Thames in Canary Wharf.

Wednesday night, onlookers in the bustling London district were left speechless as it appeared a craft from outer space was landing on the waterway.

Bright lights lit up the night sky taking the audience on a journey through the solar system with a series of colourful celestial scenes.

Passersby could be forgiven for thinking it was going to be their first encounter with another life form, but it was one of the UK’s biggest ever private drone displays to mark Samsung’s largest launch yet – the flagship Galaxy S24 devices.

As part of the show, ‘Galaxy AI is here’ was prophetically written in the stars, in an opening visual that stretched 160 metres wide across the city and announcing the arrival of the brand’s latest AI technology designed to transform the phone experience.

The eight-minute-long display featured 552 drones and took more than 650 hours to design and program, by drone art show creators Celestial.

Passerby James Carr posted on X: “Close encounters of the London kind! Spaceship in London this eve – call the Men In Black!”

While another, Joe Jones, welcomed our new “robot overlords” on the social media platform after seeing the show in the sky.

Annika Bizon, spokesperson for Samsung UK and Ireland said: “We brought the stars, solar system and universe closer than ever before to the British public to demonstrate the infinite possibilities as we look to embark on a new journey with Galaxy AI.”

The S24 becomes the first phone to debut Circle to Search with Google, allowing users to search for items with a simple gesture from the device’s screen, whilst also introducing text and call translations to enable barrier-free communication.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 will be widely available in Samsung channels and major UK retailers or from .