DOZENS of people reported seeing a UFO in the sky over York with police investigating claims space debris crashed into the ground at New Earswick.

North Yorkshire Police said a member of the public contacted the force to report a hole in a grass verge in Hazel Close at 1am yesterday.

A spokeswoman said the caller thought the small crater was caused by space debris.

“An officer attended the scene and found a hole in a grass verge approximately 1ft deep,” she said.

“There was no debris inside the hole and we are not in a position to confirm how or when the hole was made. City of York Council will be made aware of the hole.”

Chief reporter Mike Laycock reported on The Press website yesterday that he had seen what appeared to be a UFO over York on Wednesday evening.

“I caught a fleeting glimpse of a bright blue-green light flashing through the sky very fast,” he said.

“It appeared to shoot towards the ground to the west of the city.”

Within minutes, readers began emailing and ringing to say they had witnessed the phenomenon.

John Charlesworth, of Rowntree Wharf, said he saw a bright blue light, low and heading north, north- west over the city at just after 9pm.

Chloe Jepps said she saw something which stopped her in her tracks at about 9pm, when she was walking home from the city centre to Layerthorpe.

“It was like a really bright, big, slow shooting star in the sky, but heading downwards towards the ground over to my left (the north of the city),” she said.

“I half expected there to be a noise when it disappeared out of sight but there was nothing.”

Dave Scott said he was travelling down Millfield Lane at 9pm when a bright white ball of light flew in front of his car, at about a few hundred metres in height, with smaller balls of light trailing it.

“I saw it for about one second and then it was gone,” he said.