UFO sightings across North Yorkshire are on the increase.

Since strange lights were reported in the sky last Monday, the Evening Press has been inundated with phone calls from local residents claiming to have seen similar unexplained objects.

Some feel the county could be set to regain its reputation as a hotbed of UFO activity, with recent sightings in Riccall, Kelfield, Selby and York within the last two weeks.

University lecturer Hugh Palmer saw what he described as a "phenomenal sight" while driving from York to Wheldrake on Wednesday.

"I was about half a mile from Elvington airfield when this huge ball of orange light maybe 30ft across shot downwards extremely quickly from the sky.

"When it got to about 100ft from the ground it just vanished."

Mr Palmer said he then drove around for 30 minutes looking for clues as to what he had seen, but there was no sign of debris or an impact.

John McIntyre, a retired British gas worker from Tang Hall, York, was on St Nicholas Fields, York, two weeks ago when he saw an oblong object in the sky.

"There were two rows of lights running down the side of it and I was watching it for about ten minutes," he said.

"I know it was there because another man who had been stood watching it came over and said 'Can you see what I can see?"

Mr McIntyre said the object moved slowly into the clouds and then back down again four times.

"Then a plane appeared next to it and the object just disappeared. It was as if the plane had been scrambled to deal with it," he said.

A caller from Riccall, who did not want to be named, said she had seen lights in the sky at the same time and in the same place as our reporter.

The caller revealed that two years ago she and her husband followed a UFO from York to Harrogate before giving up the chase.

An RAF spokesman said they were not aware of any air traffic that would explain Monday's sightings. "But we do take any such reports seriously," he said.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said he had not seen any reports of sightings for a couple of years, but the force had recently received a report of flashing lights above Harrogate, and above Escrick last week.

Have you any strange sightings to report? Call David Wiles on 01757 703580 or e-mail via yorkreporters@york.newsquest.co.uk

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