Washington DC - The Pentagon has confirmed that a Chinese aircraft officials suspected was a surveillance balloon has been shot down above US territorial waters.

The Department of Defense confirmed to media outlets that the Chinese balloon which had drifted across the continental US to the Atlantic has been destroyed off the coast of the Carolinas.

TV images and videos shared online showed a white balloon being shot down. CNN confirmed fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia were used to take down the object at 2:39 PM ET on Saturday, according to a senior military official.

"This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, US fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

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"On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path," Austin said. Top military officials had advised against initially shooting down the balloon because of a risk of debris.

China had firmly rejected allegations of espionage relating to the balloon, as the issue placed growing strain on already troubled relations between the two nations.

China again on Saturday denied allegations of spying, saying the aircraft involved was a research balloon that had been blown off course by "force majeure."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the intrusion of the "surveillance balloon" into US airspace "unacceptable" and "irresponsible."

China has clapped back at the US' spying accusations.

"We don't accept baseless speculation and sensationalism," Beijing's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, citing senior diplomat Wang Yi's telephone conversation with Blinken a day earlier.

Blinken cancelled his visit to Beijing, planned for Sunday. It would have been the first visit to China by a US secretary of state since 2018.

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Blinken stressed that the US wanted to keep the channels of communication open with Beijing and that the visit should go ahead without delay "when conditions permit."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman reiterated that the balloon over the US had been used "for meteorological and other scientific research."

"Due to the west wind drift and because of limited steering capabilities, the airship went far off the planned route."

The Pentagon did not accept the claim, however.

The Department of Defence had made public the sighting of the first balloon on Thursday evening. The balloon was spotted over Montana, where 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads are stored at a military base in the north, according to a report.