COASTGUARDS on the East Coast were flooded with calls from people reporting a series of lights high in the sky across North Yorkshire.

A spokesman from Humber Coastguards said the calls began at 2am today when callers said they had seen a green light flashing across the sky.

"We received about half a dozen calls, so we checked it out to make sure it wasn't any ship in distress. But a red light usually marks distress, so we put it down to being a meteorite," said the spokesman.

Many reported the lights taking the shape of the letter 'Z' or number '2'. The lights were seen from Scotland to Cornwall.

Shortly after midnight the mystery was solved when an airline pilot who landed at Midlands Airport reported seeing a large meteorite entering the atmosphere when he was flying to the UK from France.

The meteorite began breaking up as it entered and left a long trail in its wake. The pilot said he watched as winds formed the trail into shapes resembling letters

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