Residents were baffled by bizarre burning waves that appeared on a beach in Indonesia.

The seawater was seen glowing before catching fire upon hitting a shore in Sulteng, Central Sulawesi province on June 15.

Sofyan Valhentzy who lived nearby said one of his neighbours first saw the strange flames and called them to have a look.

He said: ‘I heard my neighbours outside. They were running to the shore so I followed them as well. The water was burning it was unbelievable.’

The superstitious resident said the bizarre fire in the waves could be ‘a message from God’ but the cause of incident was still unknown.

He said: ‘We believe it was a message from God. The waves were fiery so it could be a warning from the heavens that we need to change our bad ways.’

The burning waves lasted for about three minutes before it disappeared on its own.

Local officials were informed of the incident and have launched an investigation to find out the cause of the fire which they said could be due to an oil spill.