A 56,000-year-old crater lake in Maharashtra, India, abruptly turned pink this week, leaving locals dazzled and puzzled by the unexpected change.

Lonar Lake, which typically looks blue-green across its 1.2 kilometre-wide surface, suddenly changed colour to bubblegum pink overnight, serving up a gorgeous and confusing view for visitors to the site.

“From green to pink,” the Maharashtra Tourism Twitter account wrote on Wednesday.

The saline lake sits in an ancient basalt crater in Buldhana, in the central Indian state of Maharashtra about 500 kilometres east of Mumbai. It’s considered unusual for its high salinity, and is a favourite destination for scientists eager to study it as a meteorite impact site.

Several other saline lakes have turned pink in the past, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah and a few in Australia that often draw crowds.