By . Suzannah Hills . A small city in China has found itself inundated with visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare phenomenon causing large stretches of coastline to glow bright blue. Worried locals initially sparked a radiation alert after calling police to report the bright glowing lights at a bathing beach in the city of Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province. Firemen however were quickly able to . reassure locals that the blue glow was entirely natural, and caused by . tiny animals known as sea sparkle, or noctiluca scintillans to give it . its Latin name. Lighting up the night: A large section of coastline in Qingdao city, Shandong province, eastern China, has been glowing with bright blue light . Pictures taken of the eerie glowing blue lights were uploaded to the internet and quickly spread on local social media networks, sparking more curious onlookers to head to the region to see it for themselves. The tiny microscopic animal feeds on plankton sized creatures and when disturbed they generate light via a chemical reaction. Fire brigade spokesman Meng Chiu said: 'Anything that disturbs them causes the chemical reaction which can be yellow or green, or blue or even red depending on which type of sea sparkle it is. Close-up: The blue glow is caused by tiny animals called noctiluca scintilians which generate light through a chemical reaction when they are disturbed . 'Obviously been washed up against the beach counts as disturbing these tiny creatures, and as a result they had started to illuminate themselves.' Little is known about why the creatures have developed the unusual reaction to disturbances and what the ecological advantage might be. Normally the animals spend their time living just below the surface of the water and are most active at night. Those pictured in the water in Qingdao would have to number in the billions to generate such a bright light. Rare: There has to be billions of noctiluca scintilians to create the blue glow seen in Qingdao - making it a very unusual sight .
Bright glowing lights were spotted at a beach in Qingdao, Shandong .
Worried locals called police believing it had been caused by radiation leak .
Glow is actually caused by tiny creatures called noctiluca scintillans .
Curious onlookers have been heading to the region to see it for themselves .
By . Suzannah Hills . A small city in China has found itself inundated with visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare phenomenon causing large stretches of coastline to glow bright blue. Worried locals initially sparked a radiation alert after calling police to report the bright glowing lights at a bathing beach in the city of Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province. Firemen however were quickly able to . reassure locals that the blue glow was entirely natural, and caused by . tiny animals known as sea sparkle, or noctiluca scintillans to give it . its Latin name. Lighting up the night: A large section of coastline in Qingdao city, Shandong province, eastern China, has been glowing with bright blue light . Pictures taken of the eerie glowing blue lights were uploaded to the internet and quickly spread on local social media networks, sparking more curious onlookers to head to the region to see it for themselves. The tiny microscopic animal feeds on plankton sized creatures and when disturbed they generate light via a chemical reaction. Fire brigade spokesman Meng Chiu said: 'Anything that disturbs them causes the chemical reaction which can be yellow or green, or blue or even red depending on which type of sea sparkle it is. Close-up: The blue glow is caused by tiny animals called noctiluca scintilians which generate light through a chemical reaction when they are disturbed . 'Obviously been washed up against the beach counts as disturbing these tiny creatures, and as a result they had started to illuminate themselves.' Little is known about why the creatures have developed the unusual reaction to disturbances and what the ecological advantage might be. Normally the animals spend their time living just below the surface of the water and are most active at night. Those pictured in the water in Qingdao would have to number in the billions to generate such a bright light. Rare: There has to be billions of noctiluca scintilians to create the blue glow seen in Qingdao - making it a very unusual sight .
Worried locals initially sparked a radiation glowing lights at a bathing beach in the city of section of coastline in Qingdao city, Shandong to the region to see it for themselves. The tiny glow is caused by tiny animals called noctiluca