U.S. has downed Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast and will attempt to recover debris

The U.S. downed the Chinese surveillance balloon off the Carolina coast on Saturday and will attempt to recover its debris, according to a U.S. official.

The action came a couple of hours after President Joe Biden responded to a reporter who asked whether the U.S. would shoot down the balloon. “We’re gonna take care of it,” Biden said, in his first public remarks about the balloon.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has confirmed that the balloon was shot down over the coast of South Carolina.

“This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in U.S. airspace,” he said in a statement Saturday.

“The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters,” Austin said.

Biden on Wednesday “gave his authorization to take down the balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” he added. “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”

Hours before it was shot down, residents in North Carolina and South Carolina reported seeing the spy balloon Saturday, and the Federal Aviation Administration paused departures and arrivals at three local airports to support the Defense Department in “a national security effort.”

“The FAA has paused departures from and arrivals to Wilmington (ILM), Myrtle Beach International (MYR) and Charleston International (CHS) airports to support the Department of Defense in a national security effort,” the FAA said in a statement.

Lawmakers took to social media to applaud Biden’s decision to take down the spy balloon as others pressed the administration for more answers.

“I strongly condemn President Xi’s brazen incursion into American airspace, and I commend President Biden’s leadership in taking down the Chinese balloon over water to ensure safety for all Americans,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted following the news. “Now we can collect the equipment and analyze the technology used by the CCP.”

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com