6:35am UK, Thursday March 03, 2011
Thousands of files with details of UFO sightings and an "alien abduction" in London have been released for the first time by the Ministry Of Defence.
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The previously classified files contain over 8,500 pages that reveal the phenomenon has been discussed at the highest levels of governments worldwide and in 1979 the House of Lords held Parliament's only ever full debate on the subject.
The files, which also contain pictures, described how for a few hours in 1967 a War Of The Worlds-style incident was treated as a potentially real alien invasion of the UK.
Another startling revelation said in the months before the September 11 attacks, 15 unidentified aircrafts were detected on radar approaching the UK and one was detected on the actual day.
Other revelations from the 35 files include the story of a family capturing on film flashing red and white lights zig-zagging their way through the sky during the early hours in 2003.
Dr David Clarke - author and senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam UniversityYou can see from the files that I wasn't the only one interested in the subject, with the phenomenon discussed at the highest level of government right across the globe
Police officers, including a helicopter team, also witnessed the 20 to 30 lights over Bromley, Kent and reported the incident. Radar checks revealed nothing unusual.
The documents read: "A policeman sent to investigate confirmed the sighting. Objects were moving faster than any man-made aircraft."
In another case a man told the MoD he believed he had been beamed up by an alien craft from his home in Barnes, south west London.
He described having a glass of milk in his garden on a night in October 1998 and "after a few moments I heard a distant roar of engines getting louder and louder."
The man said he was terrified as a huge "cigar-shaped vehicle" appeared over his house and said it felt like he had gained a whole hour.
A doughnut-shaped UFO photographed by a retired RAF officer in Sri Lanka.
"I am now beginning to wonder if I was abducted," he told the MoD, which wrote back to him saying the clocks had gone back the night before.
The phenomenon of extra-terrestrials has fascinated people for centuries and the files also detail in full the Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and letters from "persistent enquirers" that led to the MoD opening up its files for the first time in history.
Dr David Clarke, author of the book The UFO Files, said since the introduction of the FOI act questions on UFOs were the top three most popular FOI requests received by the MoD.
"You can see from the files that I wasn't the only one interested in the subject, with the phenomenon discussed at the highest level of government right across the globe."
A photo among the 35 files of a sketch of UFO in South Wales.
Another incident detailed is of six small "flying saucers" in a perfect line sighted in southern England.
An investigation found it to be a 'rag-day' hoax by engineering students from Farnborough Technical College.
In 1978, the RAF was bombarded with claims that a UFO was zipping across the sky as witnesses described a mystery orange cigar-shaped object with lights covering its base and a white cockpit.
An investigation revealed the sightings coincided with the re-entry of space debris into the Earth's atmosphere.
The files contain pages of UFO sightings and reports, colour photographs and drawings, RAF investigations, unusual radar detections, parliamentary briefings and - for the first time - documents on the government's policy on UFOs.
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