Biden vows to 'take care of' suspected Chinese spy balloon

"We're going to take care of it," Biden said, as quoted by ABC News, when a reporter asked him if the US would shoot the balloon down.

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the detection of an alleged surveillance balloon from China over the US state of Montana. Beijing claims the balloon was a civilian airship engaged in scientific research.

China's foreign ministry said the airship deviated far from its planned course due to force majeur and expressed regret over its unintended entry into US airspace.

On Friday, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would not leave for Beijing later in the day as initially planned due to the balloon incident.

The same day, the Pentagon specified that it detected another Chinese surveillance balloon — this one transiting Latin America — a day after the US identified the first one over Montana.

(With UNI/Sputnik inputs)