A bewildered pensioner who enjoys looking at the night sky was left dumbfounded after claiming he spotted a UFO hovering above his house.

Ian Gibbons, from Colne, said he was looking through his patio window a couple of weeks ago, at around 6.30pm, when he saw the UFO appear from what he described as 'a portal'.

Mr Gibbons, 72, said it was 'just like something out of a sci-fi movie', but before he could do anything it vanished.

He said: "On a good night Mars and Venus can usually be seen from where I live, we've got great views out over the countryside, and on this particular night the sky was clear and Venus had just appeared.

"I'm not into stargazing in a big way, I just like to look out of the window and admire the sky, so I went to the patio and had a look out and all of a sudden this UFO came out of a portal - it was red and orange and circular.

"I grabbed my binoculars and got a good view of it while it hovered for a few seconds, but in the wink of an eye it shot up into the sky and then sped off towards Skipton."

Mr Gibbons said he'd never seen anything like it before in his life, and he hasn't seen anything similar since.

He added: "I do believe someone over in Barnoldswick saw it as well. It was on February 22.

"It definitely wasn't a plane or someone shining a light - I had a fantastic view of it, it was like something out of a sci-fi movie."

The last meteor shower experienced in the UK was on February 28, six days after Mr Gibbons claimed he saw a UFO.

It is possible that what Mr Gibbons saw was a drone, but that cannot be confirmed.