POLICE received eight reports of UFOs and aliens by people who believe ‘the truth is out there’ in recent years, it has been revealed.

According to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request, officers responded to two of the reports after a sighting of two ‘crafts’ over Pendle Hill in 2015 and another in Lytham St Annes the year before.

The service said on both occasions no evidence of UFOs was found by officers.

In March last year the police were contacted over a suspected alien abduction in Accrington and another report was received the next month over a UFO ‘landing’ in Marsden Park, Nelson.

A report of a ‘beam of light from a UFO was sent to officers from a person in Burnley in 2015 with another sighting submitted the previous year in Buckshaw Village.

Two UFOs were said to be seen in the sky over Fleetwood in 2015 and a reported red craft and another white one was said to have been spotted over Bottle last year.

The latest set of information comes after three close encounters were made public for the first time in 2009 after 4,000 pages of declassified Ministry of Defence documents were released.

A copper gold triangle moving at right angles caught the eye of a Colne resident on October 18, 1994, and the police were also alerted to a stationary bright flashing red light hovering above a garden in the town on February 23, 1996.

In Burnley, authorities were informed of 250 sightings of an object in the sky which was travelling at high speed towards Hebden Bridge on 22 November, 1995. Andy Sierolawski, from Todmorden Observatory, said: “We get asked if we have ever seen anything all the time.

“Around 40 per cent of the people who visit the centre ask us.

“Saturn and Venus as well as aircraft can very easily be mistaken for something else.

A police spokesman said: “With any call received into the police force control room the operator assesses each and identifies any risk/threat/harm and the operator provides the appropriate response to this, which may include deploying an officer.

“Sometimes these calls are not what they may seem so a potential UFO call could be a suspicious light or suspicious movement that could mean any number of things and we would assess and deploy officers if required, or there could be a concern for the caller’s welfare.”