Staff at Colchester United stunned after burger falls from space and lands at club's training ground

Staff at Colchester United couldn't believe their eyes when a frozen burger attached to a polystyrene box fell from space and landed at their training ground.

The U's bemused groundsman made the discovery on one of the pitches at Florence Park on Wednesday and immediately told club officials.

Not long after, Youtuber Tom Stanniland called the club to explain that the Big Mac was his and that he'd sent it up to space using a weather balloon.

Amazingly, the balloon climbed all the way to the Earth's atmosphere, before it popped and plummeted back down again.

When the unidentifiable frying object eventually came to a halt, it landed, of all places, in Colchester.

The whole incredible story was documented through the club's Twitter feed who told the tale through a series of hilarious Gifs.

Mr Stanniland was able to locate the whereabouts of the burger thanks to tracker which he'd attached to the box, and the whole journey was filmed using a GoPro camera.

"I sent a burger into space using a weather balloon. It's gone about 24 miles up, weather balloon popped, it's come back down, over 100 miles, and it's landed right here," he said on his Youtube channel.

"We lost connection with it when it got so high. It's crash-landed here but in the morning the groundskeeper found the box, turned it upside down, the tracker got connection again, we've found it and just followed it."

And after making the long trip down to Essex from his home in Sheffield, he couldn't start the journey back again on an empty stomach.

The verdict? "It's not nice!" he said after taking a bite. "It's drying my mouth out."