The phenomenon captured the imagination of many up early on Thursday, some joking that it was the result of Harry Kane's decisive penalty miss in the Football World Cup returning to the Earth's atmosphere.

This selection of photos clearly shows the black streak and a lighter object seemingly below it.

Donna Green was alerted to the object by her 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth.

Donna said: "On Tuesday at 8.09am me and my daughter, Elizabeth, were going to drop her at her friend's to walk to school. We were driving in Kingswinford and just about to turn into Oak Street when Elizabeth spotted the smoke and what looked like a burning object in the sky.

"So we pulled over and took the pictures and then carried on. The burning object seemed to move further from the smoke while we took the pictures.

"It was down to my daughter as I wouldn’t have seen it.

"We would love to know what it was!"

Several people have suggested that the streak could have been a contrail from a plane, particularly visible because of the angle of the sun.