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Riddle of UFO 'invasion'
Last updated at 13:07pm on 28.11.06A UFO scare was sparked after the police were flooded with calls about a fleet of 'spaceships' invading the coast of Britain.
Thousands of people spotted the bright orange orbs off the Channel coast at Brighton.
Police and air traffic control centres were inundated by reports of the strange spectacle, the Daily Express reported.
Shocked witness James Gordon-Johnson said: "I hadn't been drinking. I was sceptical about UFOs before but this has changed my mind.
"I saw this big orange light in the sky. Then another one appeared in mid-air. Then another. And another."
Experts are baffled by the phenomenon, but believe it could be linked to a meteor shower.
The Hermstmonceux Observatory in East Sussex said a cloud of comet dust had produced a meteor shower which peaked with a display of shooting stars.
And an earlier Ministry of Defence study into UFOs concluded that many sightings could be "glowing clouds of gas created by electricity charges."
Reader views (6)
I saw these very lights twice, one with 13 different lights moving erratically but deliberatly in formations, and once 3 moving in a very simple arc before disapearing
- Thomas Smith, london
Ive seen these type of lights myself, I lived in a house half a mile from any other about ten years ago not far from Dover, Kent. It was about 3am when i witnessed these lights I had not been drinking and I used to watch the night sky from my house often, I saw 2 very bright glowing orange lights on the horizon, at first I thought they were street lights in the distance that I had not noticed before, then suddenly one darted up into the sky as fast as a shooting star but came to a sudden halt, the other followed it seconds after and danced around the first light very fast, it moved like nothing I have ever seen before the first light became bigger and brighter they moved very fast eraticly around each other, one more eratic than the other, I watched them doing this for at least two minutes before they dissapeared suddenly. They were amazing to watch and were definatly not man made aircraft nor could they have been meteors, unless meteors can move in patterns like figures of eight. Very strange. I think they should be investigated thoroughly because I've heard a lot of storys about orange lights since I saw them.
- Mark Russell, dover uk
Did anyone take pictures of this?
- David, Brugge, Belgium
Glowing clouds of gas? A meteor shower? It sounds like a scene from the movie "Men In Black", doesn't it?
- Mike, Christiansburg, VA, USA
If this was a genuine UFO there is no way that the MOD or the Govt would admit it is there?
- Paul, Enfield, Middx
Me, my mum and Uncle noticed this on the 18th travelling back from Mylton Keynes to Bedford, it was a very bright Red orb and was travelling down from above the clouds very fast, then just vanished after passing the clouds, it was an amazing sight, there was a lot of traffic so I know a lot of people would have seen it.
- Fabio, Bedfordshire
