WE ARE A UFO HOTSPOT

The Westcountry is a "hot spot" for sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, according to a secret Ministry of Defence (MoD) database.

In the last eight years there have been almost 80 unexplained sightings in the skies over the far South West, ranging from 300ft white spheres in Tavistock to spinning orange lights over Glastonbury.

The WMN has also learnt that since 2000, the MoD has stopped investigating reports of unidentified flying objects and the list of sightings has only come to light following a Freedom of Information request.

It means the list of UFOs, just released from the MoD archives, has never been properly investigated by defence experts.

But before the recent shark-inspired panic switches to fears of an alien invasion, it would appear some of the accounts from space-ship spotters can be more easily explained. For example, some of the UFOs listed in the official Government database have so far taken the shape of a telegraph pole, fireworks or helicopters.

In the past, the MoD examined any UFO sighting reports that it received to establish if the UK airspace has been "compromised by hostile and unauthorised activity" as part of the top secret report into Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region.

"It was not to establish the possibility of extra-terrestrial visitors but to see if there was any information of value to assess the threat of foreign weapons systems," an MoD spokesman said yesterday.

But since 2000 all this has changed: "Defence intelligence staff decided that it was not necessary for them to continue receiving the sighting reports generated by the public and would put the resources into other tasks. The MoD doesn't have the expertise or a role in respect of it and doesn't know of any evidence of the alleged phenomena."

The reports range from a traditional "flying saucer" in Bideford in July 2000 to the more extreme object, the size of a small room "spinning on its own axis", in Torquay in 2001.

The UFOs come in all shapes and sizes too, from a very bright "half-a-mile-long object" over Probus in Cornwall in 2001, to a "silver, cigar-shaped object, moving faster than a nearby plane" in Harracott, Devon in December 2000.

While some of the reports are incredibly vague, others are detailed in their descriptions. On April 7, 2003 a "craft" was spotted in Falmouth with three yellow lights on the port side and three red lights on starboard side. Its shape was "between circular and triangular, or delta wing size" - although the timing of the sighting, at 2.30am, might suggest the spotter was not as alert as they might have been.

Dave Gillham, who founded Cornwall UFO Research Group in 1995, said less light pollution made it easier for people in the Westcountry to see the airborne objects.

"There are only small towns, so once you get out into the country you can see more clearly," he said. "The UFOs are really coloured lights, so they stick out quite a bit in the dark. They come in from the sea and go around the coast. There's a lot going on at the moment. I don't think everything can be explained."

Mr Gillham holds annual conferences in the county with speakers from all over the world to discuss the phenomena.

But he admits it is also a chance for people who have seen something unusual overhead to talk with other like-minded people. "A lot of people get ridiculed for saying they have seen UFOs, so that's why we have the conference."