Disappointed friends think they've spotted the northern lights but it's just a hotel

As Brits up and down the country were recently on the lookout for the Northern Lights, two guys thought they spotted the rare sky display - only to hilariously find the purple hue was caused by lights from a budget hotel.

There was a rare geomagnetic storm at the weekend which meant that the aurora borealis made a rare appearance across the UK with people sharing their stunning snaps on social media.

Initially, TikToker Karim Akhtar (@paakkz) and his friend Sully in Norwich thought they hit the jackpot when they saw a purple light shine in the sky at 12.50 a.m. but all was not what it seemed as the pair soon discovered they had been "catfished" after following the light which wasn't coming from the night sky...

It was actually just purple lights from a Premier Inn hotel on Duke Street, Norwich - anti-climatic to say the least.

"We've been catfished, how have we been catfished? I thought it was the Northern Lights here, it's a f****** building," Akhtar said in the clip.

"You literally couldn't write it, I felt like I was in Tom and Jerry. We walked up the street and we were looking up to the sky, and we thought we could see them, we saw four other people who had done the same," Akhtar, a 22-year-old pharmacology student at the University of East Anglia told Newsweek.

But the situation prompted laughter from the pals as they shared their mistake on TikTok where it has gone viral with over 6.3m views.

"We thought we missed them in Iceland but saw them in Norwich," the video caption read, as people in the comments were also tickled by this funny moment.

One person said: "Man premier inn think they’re summoning Batman."

"This is more commonly known as the phenomenon of the 'Premier Lights'. Happens once a night. Super cool to see," another person joked.

Someone else added: "I would’ve been PISSSEDDDDD."

"Least you can laugh about it," a fourth person commented.

Even the Premier Inn left a comment where the hotel chain posted: "We be glowing."

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