UFO sightings soar

[Ricardo]

The number of UFO sightings in Britain soared by 40% last year.

The Ministry of Defence logged 135 reports - up from 97 in 2006 - including a camper who claimed a spaceship fleet abducted his dog and swiped his tent near Cardiff.

Another sighting, of two objects a mile wide over Guernsey, was witnessed by two airline pilots.

One, Ray Bowyer, 50, said: "I'm not saying it was from another world, but I've never seen anything like it in all my years of flying."

Discs, formations, white or orange lights, triangular shaped craft and pipe-like objects were all spotted in 2007. Reports were lodged from all over England, Scotland and Wales at all times of the year.

One witness in Rotherham said they saw "a bright triangular object in the sky. It was stationary at first and then moved".

Another in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, spotted: "Fifty objects, each with a single orange light. They gathered before ascending directly upwards."

Meanwhile,

Hilary Porter, from the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society, said: "There has been a huge influx of UFOs. Absolutely enormous. There has been these huge formations that have been coming."

Others maintain the vast majority of the sightings can be explained. Many are helicopters, weather balloons or satellites, while others are optical illusions or unusual cloud formations.